CleanSpeak - Communicationshttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm
CleanSpeak, a Beaupre blog, posts original content about the clean technology industry through a communications, PR and branding lens.en-usSun, 02 Aug 2015 14:21:42-0400Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:50:00-0400BlogCFChttp://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rssBeaupre CleanSpeak Blog <blog@beaupre.com>Beaupre CleanSpeak Blog <blog@beaupre.com>Plugging in electric cars is easy, but paying for them might kill youhttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2013/3/13/Plugging-in-electric-cars-is-easy-but-paying-for-them-might-kill-you
<p>Charging a plug-in vehicle is a lot like a middle school science project &ndash; except most middle school science projects don&rsquo;t leave you stranded in a parking lot hundreds of miles from home.</p>
<p><a data-mce-href="http://cleanspeak.brodeur.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Electric_car_charging.jpg" href="http://cleanspeak.brodeur.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Electric_car_charging.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-1112" hspace="10" alt="Electric_car_charging" vspace="10" align="right" width="300" height="199" data-mce-src="http://cleanspeak.brodeur.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Electric_car_charging-300x199.jpg" src="http://cleanspeak.brodeur.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Electric_car_charging-300x199.jpg" /></a>That's the implicit message permeating the <a data-mce-href="http://www.autoevolution.com/news/tesla-blasts-new-york-times-for-ethics-violation-56180.html" href="http://www.autoevolution.com/news/tesla-blasts-new-york-times-for-ethics-violation-56180.html">public duel </a>between Tesla Motors CEO and founder Elon Musk and <em>New York Times</em> writer John Broder. The former objects to the <a data-mce-href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/automobiles/stalled-on-the-ev-highway.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=2&amp;" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/automobiles/stalled-on-the-ev-highway.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=2&amp;">latter&rsquo;s review</a> of Tesla&rsquo;s swanky Model S electric sedan. Broder's travelogue legitimizes a central fear about plug-in vehicles: that they&rsquo;re unreliable if they stray too far from a high-speed charging station. (Which, incidentally, aren't all that speedy at 30 minutes for a 150-mile charge.)</p>
<p>Broder wrote that he did everything short of pumping magic beans into the Model S to keep it rolling. He drove at low speeds without the heat on for miles to get from one charging station to another. He stayed in almost constant touch with Tesla customer service. He took long breaks while the Model S slowly sipped from electric outlets.</p>
<p>Even with those accommodations, Broder claimed that the Model S ran out of juice and shut itself down in Milford, Conn., about two thirds of the distance from his starting point of Washington DC to his destination of Boston.</p>
<p>Tesla struck back &ndash; persuasively. Musk cited the car&rsquo;s on-board activity log and Broder&rsquo;s own communications with Tesla customer service to charge that Broder deliberately ran the Model S down for dramatic effect. Oh yeah, and he didn&rsquo;t putter along at 50 miles per hour with the heat off in February, as he claimed. He drove at highway speeds with the heat on.</p>
<p>No matter whom you believe in this beef, the underlying issue is bogus. Electric cars are not going to fail for lack of places to plug them in any more than gasoline-powered cars failed for lack of gas stations at the end of the horse-and-buggy era.</p>
<p>When gasoline engines hit the scene, the technology was good enough to spur growth of an infrastructure around it. The same thing is happening with plug-ins. <a data-mce-href="http://www.nissanusa.com/" href="http://www.nissanusa.com/">Nissan</a> and Tesla Motors are rolling out <a data-mce-href="http://www.treehugger.com/cars/nissan-build-500-fast-charge-stations-us-within-18-months.html" href="http://www.treehugger.com/cars/nissan-build-500-fast-charge-stations-us-within-18-months.html">coast-to-coast networks of high-speed charging stations </a>for their electric vehicles. There are already gujillions of <a data-mce-href="http://www.pluginamerica.org/accessories" href="http://www.pluginamerica.org/accessories">charging devices</a> on the market. The Baltic nation of Estonia has made it a national priority to establish a <a data-mce-href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/justingerdes/2013/02/26/estonia-launches-nationwide-electric-vehicle-fast-charging-network/" href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/justingerdes/2013/02/26/estonia-launches-nationwide-electric-vehicle-fast-charging-network/">network of charging stations </a>and they&rsquo;re off to a good start.</p>
<p>I know, Estonia doesn&rsquo;t compare to the U.S. in size or population. Yet it has 1.25 million people and 17,000 square miles to cover, so it&rsquo;s not a throwaway comparison either.</p>
<p>No, the issue with plug-in cars isn&rsquo;t where to plug them in. The issue is also not that they plug into a grid powered largely by dirty-burning coal, which is the other popular red herring around plug-ins. The grid is getting more environmentally friendly and will grow steadily more so as more renewable energy sources come online.</p>
<p>The issue with plug-in cars is that they&rsquo;re too expensive for large-scale consumer adoption. A Tesla Model S costs $54,000. A similarly tricked-out Mercedes Benz E-class sedan goes for $51,000. A Chevy Volt is $39,000, compared to $21,000 for a Chevy Mailbu. A basic Nissan Leaf costs $21,300 &ndash; and the Leaf is the econobox of the electric car set. A comparable conventionally powered car costs about $14,500.</p>
<p>These price points make plug-in vehicles irrelevant to most consumers. Even if they care for the environment, they can&rsquo;t pay for a car with good intentions. So treat spitting contests like Broder versus Musk for what they are: entertainment. But when someone talks about making a plug-in that the average consumer can afford, you might want to pay attention. That&rsquo;s the real obstacle for plug-ins.</p>
Renewable EnergyCommentaryHybridElectricityClimateEnergyCommunicationsWed, 13 Mar 2013 10:50:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2013/3/13/Plugging-in-electric-cars-is-easy-but-paying-for-them-might-kill-youRapid content response can you do it?http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2011/11/1/Rapid-content-response--can-you-do-it
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt">Communications organizations need to act fast these days &ndash; like the bicycle maker that recently pounced on a green gaffe by General Motors.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt">Here&rsquo;s how it went down.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt">GM put out this ad, targeted at college kids&hellip;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt">&nbsp;<img alt="GM 'stop pedaling' ad" align="absMiddle" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6107/6289843854_bdcd224c18_m.jpg" /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt">&hellip;showing a poor sap on a bike in front of a cute co-ed who was&nbsp;riding in a &hellip; wow, car!</div>
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<p><img alt="Embarrassed" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6034/6289324723_c000b148a6_m.jpg" /></p>
<p>&hellip;and then there was this part:</p>
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<p><img style="width: 256px; height: 58px" alt="bad part" width="249" height="60" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6105/6289324705_c24366e800_m.jpg" /></p>
<p>&ldquo;Yep. Shameless,&rdquo; wrote <a href="http://bikeportland.org/2011/10/11/gm-ad-urges-college-students-to-stop-pedaling-start-driving-60399"><font color="#0000ff">BikePortland.org</font></a> publisher/editor Jonathan Maus. &ldquo;But just more of the same from the auto industry.&rdquo;</p>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt">Cyclists went ballistic. The auto company &ndash; a recent beneficiary of American tax dollars, contributor to our national debt, and the front end of a pretty big greenhouse gas supply chain &ndash; actually had the gall to promote its cars as, well, an alternative mode of transportation.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt">Why pedal, indeed? Why drink tap water when you can get a plastic bottle from Fiji? Why compost your leaves when you can let the garbage man take them to the landfill? Heck, why regulate carbon emissions when it&rsquo;s easier just to spew?</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt">Cyclists occupied Twitter with complaints about GM. The company quickly apologized (smart) via Twitter, shifting the blame onto college kids (dumb, but no one called them on it):</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"><img style="width: 378px; height: 271px" alt="We're listening" width="291" height="224" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6233/6289843944_880b50e31a_m.jpg" />&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt">One company in the bicycle industry, Giant Bicycles, actually made some hay with the story. The bike manufacturer came up with this take-off on GM&rsquo;s ad and, within about 24 hours of the twitstorm&rsquo;s beginning, posted it on Facebook.</div>
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<p><img hspace="4" alt="Giant Bicycles reply parody ad" vspace="4" width="400" height="291" src="http://theepicride.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/gm_ad-parody.jpg" /></p>
<p>That&rsquo;s quick.</p>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt">The Giant post gained more than 1,000 <em>like</em>s and 386 shares (a pretty big share ratio). That&rsquo;s solid engagement and a boost for the brand. Although Giant is admired for Toyota-like value, it doesn&rsquo;t have the cachet of the Pinarello, Orbea or maybe even Trek brand. So leading the charge against GM&rsquo;s foul, if only for a minute, adds an emotional dimension to Giant.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt">Either way, Giant&rsquo;s rapid content generation feat is rare. Sure, savvy communications organizations know how to join a Twitter conversation, but quickly developing solid content like the parody ad almost never happens. Many companies and agencies still use byzantine &ldquo;public relations 1.0&rdquo; workflows for social&nbsp;content creation, review and approval &ndash; assuming they can conceive of a clever response in the first place.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt">Too often, it still takes a month to put out a press release. Even if social content takes half the time, this pace simply won't work. In the age of Twitter, Facebook or YouTube, an opportunity goes cold long before you&rsquo;ve had a chance to run your proposed creative response up and down the chain of command, collecting edits, suggestions and feedback at every turn. By the time the content is blessed, if it ever is, it&rsquo;s worthless.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt">To get results in 2011, be ready to act. Faster than you ever have. Like Giant, which is said to be the <a href="http://casium.fr/component/kashyap/bc_detail/122"><font color="#0000ff">world&rsquo;s largest bicycle manufacturer</font></a>.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"><strong>So &hellip; how does a giant company like Giant get so fast on its feet?</strong></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt">Well, we asked them*.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"><strong>CleanSpeak: First, how did you come up with the idea for your parody ad?</strong></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt"><strong>An Le, Giant Global Marketing Director: </strong>GM&rsquo;s ad was so off the mark that it made our idea quite easy. We simply illustrated the real &ldquo;reality&rdquo; of what college students (and many of us) are facing these days &ndash; rising cost of fuel, congestion, and an ever-expanding waistline.</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><strong>CleanSpeak: How did you get the ad done so fast?</strong></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt">
<p><strong>Giant: </strong>Instead of going through our agency or design house, we did this piece in-house. It took us about&nbsp;two hours from conception to going live on Facebook. With Facebook, we have a quick and casual way to get a message out to our core audience, and we would not have produced this parody ad if Facebook did not exist.</p>
</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><strong>CleanSpeak: Do you pull off these quick content creation feats very often?
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<p><font size="1"><img border="5" hspace="0" alt="An Le on a charity ride. Photo by Jake Orness." align="top" width="256" height="273" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6091/6289844182_c5198f8bd7_m.jpg" /></font></p>
<p><font size="1">Giant's An Le in a charity ride. Photo by Jake Orness.</font></p>
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<p><strong>Giant: </strong>We create content daily &ndash; be it news, videos, photos, etc. &ndash; but this is our first parody ad.</p>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><strong>CleanSpeak: What&rsquo;s your process for approving the concept and, later,&nbsp;the final? How many approvals?</strong></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt">
<p><strong>Giant: </strong>We don&rsquo;t have too many layers of management at Giant. I have final say in creative, and in creating this particular ad, our in-house designer (Nate Riffle, who sits next to me) and I bounced ideas back and forth and had it done in a couple of hours. If we work with a design agency, the process is similar but does take a bit more back and forth. &nbsp;</p>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><strong>CleanSpeak: What is your secret for fast content creation?</strong></div>
<p style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><strong>Giant: </strong>Be quick. Avoid committee approval. Don&rsquo;t worry about making it perfect. Have some guts to take chances once in a while. And don&rsquo;t be malicious &ndash; do it in a spirit of fun.</p>
<p style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt" align="center"><strong><font size="5">&nbsp;...</font></strong></p>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt">* via email. They provided answers from their global marketing director in one hour and five minutes. Do your spokespeople move that fast? We got the right email address by pinging Giant&rsquo;s Twitter address. That yielded another quick reply. Who&rsquo;s monitoring <em>your</em> Twitter feed for media/blogger inquiries?</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt">&nbsp;</div>
GreenCommentaryEnvironmentBrandingClimateSocial MediaCommunicationsTue, 01 Nov 2011 13:45:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2011/11/1/Rapid-content-response--can-you-do-itFragrance fouls provoke protestshttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/10/1/Fragrance-fouls-provoke-protests
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><img hspace="4" vspace="4" align="right" width="300" height="225" alt="" src="http://www.teensturninggreen.org/images/stories/a__f/af_group_shot.jpg" />Successful marketing draws attention to itself, sometimes drawing a bull&rsquo;s eye on its own back.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Case in point is Abercrombie &amp; Fitch, which critics claim has been dousing its products, employees and storefronts with a signature cologne that, it turns out, <a href="http://www.ewg.org/files/SafeCosmetics_FragranceRpt.pdf">includes</a> a potentially dangerous chemical. Diethyl phthalate has been linked to sperm damage in adult men and abnormal development of reproductive organs in baby boys.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><a href="http://www.teensturninggreen.org/"><font color="#800080">Teens Turning Green</font></a> <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/09/california-teens-protest-abercrombie-fitchs-toxic-perfume.php?campaign=th_rss">marched</a> on Abercrombie&rsquo;s San Francisco store yesterday, calling the store&rsquo;s perfume-igation &ldquo;toxic trespassing.&rdquo;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&ldquo;Why,&rdquo; says TTG&rsquo;s overly hip <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BC1F0It9ck&amp;feature=related">video letter</a> to the Abercrombie CEO, &ldquo;are we overwhelmed by an unwanted and unasked for odor inside and outside your stores, [one] that permeates our clothing, penetrates our lungs, invades our personal space and occupies our personal consciousness. This is <em>unacceptable</em>.&rdquo;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">So, how bad is Abercrombie&rsquo;s &ldquo;Fierce&rdquo; for men? It&rsquo;s well below the median in a list of popular fragrances containing secret chemicals (not listed on product labels), according to a report by the <a href="http://www.ewg.org/files/SafeCosmetics_FragranceRpt.pdf">Environmental Working Group</a> in May. And the chemical in question is already present in 97 percent of Americans.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">
<p>That tells us the critical factor in making Abercrombie a big, juicy target is apparently the carpet-bomb scent campaign. Allergy sufferers and chemical-sensitive individuals are built-in sympathizers, as well as parents concerned about Abercrombie&rsquo;s sexualized advertising. Abercrombie is clearly the perfect foil for the Teens, a media-savvy organization with an enviable list of <a href="http://www.teensturninggreen.org/about-us/sponsors.html"><font color="#800080">sponsors</font></a> spreading its outrage <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Teens-Turning-Green/29471969003?sid=f19dded15f3a26a4ab8e9c17b25dc448&amp;ref=s">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/18210323@N07/sets/72157625057551992/">flickr</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BC1F0It9ck&amp;feature=related">YouTube</a>, posters, petitions and more.</p>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">
<p>They&rsquo;ve got everything but their own fragrance.&nbsp;</p>
</div>
<p><embed height="301" width="504" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nhK_yXSaAGg?version=3" scale="ShowAll" loop="loop" menu="menu" wmode="Window" quality="1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></p>
CommentaryEnvironmentBrandingCommunicationsFri, 01 Oct 2010 13:41:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/10/1/Fragrance-fouls-provoke-protestsHow the Fortune 500 learned to love the EPAhttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/9/2/How-the-Fortune-500-learned-to-love-the-EPA
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt"><font size="2"><img hspace="4" vspace="4" align="right" width="225" height="353" alt="" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff234/pmindemann/greenwashing.jpg" />How powerful has environmental cred grown? Powerful enough for an EPA renewable energy program to attract more multinational corporations than Steve Forbes&rsquo; New Year&rsquo;s Eve party. In a country like ours that almost fetishises private enterprise, you know you&rsquo;ve arrived when the Fortune 500 comes to play.</font></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt"><font size="2">The EPA&rsquo;s Green Partnership program publishes </font></span><a href="http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/toplists/top50.htm"><span style="font-size: 12pt"><font size="2">annual lists of the top 50 renewable energy consumers</font></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt"><font size="2"> in the program. Several are local, state and federal agencies who might be expected to toe the line considering that the current occupant of the White House is a renewable energy fan. There are also a few universities &ndash; reliable members of the liberal vanguard on most social issues. But the private corporations on the list outnumber the universities and public agencies 33 to 17. And we&rsquo;re talking heavy hitters like Intel, Kohl&rsquo;s, Cisco, Johnson &amp; Johnson, Lockheed Martin, Walmart, Motorola, Lowe&rsquo;s, Herman Miller, Sprint, ING Bank, Safeway Inc., Dannon, Bloomberg, Staples and Hilton Worldwide. </font></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt"><font size="2">These aren&rsquo;t exactly members of the Ben &amp; Jerry&rsquo;s hippie corporate crowd, so what&rsquo;s in it for them? I mean bottom-line benefits &ndash; dollars and cents. You can talk about corporate responsibility all day, but in the end&nbsp;corporations exist to make a profit. Anything that doesn&rsquo;t make a profit in the corporate world has the shelf life of a fruit fly. The </font></span><a href="http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/index.htm"><span style="font-size: 12pt"><font size="2">Green Power Partnership</font></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt"><font size="2"> program doesn&rsquo;t put a dime in their pockets. Actually, it&rsquo;s probably the exact opposite. Renewable energy is still more expensive than fossil fuels, so from a purely economic standpoint a corporation would be better off burning coal. </font></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt"><font size="2"><img hspace="4" vspace="4" align="left" width="225" height="104" alt="" src="http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/images/gpp_logo180.gif" />Yet not only are these companies part of the Green Power Partnership, they had to bust some tail to get in. Companies that want to be a Green Power Partner have to estimate their annual electricity use; review their power purchasing requirements; find and buy green power; then prove they actually bought it. The EPA strictly defines &ldquo;green&rdquo; in this context as wind, solar, biomass, biogas, geothermal, or low-impact hydro. Or, if you want to hear it in the original bureaucratese, &ldquo;A green power resource produces electricity with zero anthropogenic (i.e., human-caused) emissions, has a superior environmental profile to conventional power generation, and must have been built after the beginning of the voluntary market (1/1/1997).&rdquo; Applicants have to submit certified information to the EPA, and it&rsquo;s subject to review. </font></span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt"><font size="2">So it doesn&rsquo;t help the bottom line and you have to bust a gut to qualify. Again, where&rsquo;s the upside? I still maintain it&rsquo;s not on the bottom line. But it is on the top line. In the last few years the corporate attitudinal axis tilted they decided that sustainability isn&rsquo;t a hippie pipe dream &ndash; it&rsquo;s good business. They want consumers to know they&rsquo;re walking the green walk because consumers care, and it helps their public image.</font></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt"><font size="2">Green power&rsquo;s influence extends beyond consumer markets into business-to-business. Take </font></span><a href="http://www.intel.com/"><span style="font-size: 12pt"><font size="2">Intel</font></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt"><font size="2"> as the bellwether for this movement. Intel isn&rsquo;t a consumer business, but it developed a consumer brand through the &ldquo;Intel Inside&rdquo; campaign. Now it&rsquo;s speaking directly to consumers again through its two-year-run atop the Green Power Partnership ranking. Intel buys 1.4 million kilowatt hours of renewable energy per year &ndash; or 51 percent of its total consumption. Google &ldquo;Intel renewable energy&rdquo; and you land on a </font></span><a href="http://www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/green/rec/index.htm"><span style="font-size: 12pt"><font size="2">page in the Intel press room dedicated to its renewable energy purchase program</font></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt"><font size="2">. The headline? &ldquo;Intel Tops EPA&rsquo;s List of Green Power Partners.&rdquo; </font></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt"><font size="2">That&rsquo;s a huge affirmation to the power of public perception. The ultimate expression of corporate power was once &ldquo;What&rsquo;s good for General Motors is good for the country.&rdquo; With companies like Intel leading the charge, hopefully that will change to &ldquo;What Intel does for the environment is good for the country.&rdquo;</font></span></div>
CleantechCommentaryGreenCommunicationsThu, 02 Sep 2010 14:29:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/9/2/How-the-Fortune-500-learned-to-love-the-EPAOil fatigue and making ourselves carehttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/7/30/Oil-fatigue-and-making-ourselves-care
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><img style="width: 180px; height: 211px" hspace="4" alt="" vspace="4" align="left" width="175" height="205" src="http://imagebin.ca/img/1FEgcOol.jpg" />Who really cares? That&rsquo;s a vital question, maybe <em>the</em> question, in clean tech communications.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">You can sit in a conference room all day hashing out your product positioning, but if you can&rsquo;t get your audience to <em>feel</em>, you&rsquo;ll never get them to act.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">This truth concerns me from a life-or-death perspective as some of the most concrete, tangible, visible symptoms of our planet&rsquo;s problems &ndash; the things that make us care &ndash; are fading away. We, the audience, care just a little less each day.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">The BP well has stopped spewing, so the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=stream/3">underground oil cam</a> is boring. Tony Hayward has <a href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3021510/Fury-as-BP-boss-relaxes-on-boat.html">sailed</a> away from the executive suite, taking his <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/WN/bp-ceo-tony-hayward-receive-compensation-world-news/story?id=11257978">$18 million</a> and our anger with him. The oil slick is &hellip; well, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/WN/bp-oil-spill-crude-mother-nature-breaks-slick/story?id=11254252&amp;page=2">where the hell has it gone</a>?</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Climate change is at least as frustrating as oil fatigue because it&rsquo;s an abstraction even as it suffocates the planet. Although it&rsquo;s sweltering here in New England, global warming will seem pretty academic in December. And while the slow implosion of the ocean&rsquo;s food chain isn&rsquo;t as jarring as the pothole on your street, ocean warming is being blamed for a <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/07/plankton-in-peril-as-warming-oceans-causes-steady-population-decline.php">40 percent decrease in the ocean&rsquo;s algal biomass</a>.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;<img style="width: 280px; height: 156px" hspace="4" alt="" vspace="4" align="right" width="288" height="177" src="http://www.resourceactionprograms.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/plastiki.jpg" /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><a href="http://www.theplastiki.com/"><font color="#800080">Plastiki</font></a> gets the art of caring. The sailboat, made of 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles, just arrived in Sydney after 128 days crossing the Pacific and spotlighting the blight of plastic trash in the ocean. It was an inspired communications gambit that has successfully given compelling physical form to an environmental concern we hardly see.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">
<p>The vessel was years in the making. Sometimes it takes that kind of effort to make people care. Keep that in mind when you&rsquo;re fighting the good fight for clean technology.</p>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">
<p>Sadly, bad news can be easier to care about. Although the plankton decline isn&rsquo;t so scary, when Louisiana&rsquo;s seafood restaurants <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2010/07/29/along_the_louisiana_coast_months_of_struggle_hope/">become pasta joints</a>, that will certainly get people&rsquo;s attention.</p>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>
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NewsCommentaryRecyclingClimateCommunicationsFri, 30 Jul 2010 11:55:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/7/30/Oil-fatigue-and-making-ourselves-careNext BP victim: 'brand journalism'http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/6/30/Next-BP-victim-brand-journalism
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">The <em>brand journalist</em> is the one of the most compelling marketing concepts I&rsquo;ve encountered in a while.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">A brand journalist is an in-house newshound, preferably with professional reporting experience, who works for your company instead of an independent news organization. You unleash him or her to mine <img hspace="4" alt="" vspace="4" align="left" width="250" height="250" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4057/4705623845_b2b3cf171b.jpg" />stories &ndash; from the inside &ndash; that make good corporate blog posts, video, photos, charts, e-books, white papers and the like. The theory is that the content, conceived and produced by a real enough journalist, will be compelling, polished, believable, persuasive and maybe even authentic.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt">&ldquo;Brand Journalism is not a product pitch,&rdquo; says marketing strategist <a href="http://www.webinknow.com/">David Meerman Scott</a>. &ldquo;It is not an advertorial. It is not an egotistical spewing of gobbledygook-laden corporate drivel. Brand Journalism is the creation of Web content &hellip; that delivers value to your marketplace and serves to position your organization as one worthy of doing business with.&rdquo;</div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">When I <a href="http://www.webinknow.com/2010/03/brand-journalism-.html">first learned</a> of the practice, it was a eureka moment. Media consumers are starving for authenticity, and the business world is generally failing to deliver it. Brand journalism! This was the answer.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">So leave it to BP to spoil a good thing.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">The company has contaminated the Gulf with &ldquo;<a href="http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9033611&amp;contentId=7061850"><font color="#800080">BP reporters</font></a>&rdquo; writing eerily feel-good posts and coaxing positive comments from locals. Comments like &ldquo;<a href="http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=9034260&amp;contentId=7062484">there is no reason to hate BP&rdquo; and &ldquo;the oil spill was an accident.</a>&rdquo; One &lsquo;BP reporter&rsquo; actually characterized cleanup work as a &ldquo;<a href="http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=9034261&amp;contentId=7062628"><font color="#800080">ballet at sea</font></a> <span>as mesmerising as any performance in a concert hall, and worthy of an audience in its own right.&rdquo; Gag me.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">As if BP weren&rsquo;t already <a href="http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/5/14/BP-leaking-credibility-by-the-barrel">leaking credibility by the barrel</a>, <a href="http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2010/06/30/video-bp-reporters-spin-the-gulf-oil-spill/?iref=allsearch">CNN</a> last night tore them a new one for posts like these.<img hspace="4" alt="" vspace="4" align="right" src="http://www.portofplaquemines.com/Billy_001.jpg" /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Said media watcher Howard Kurtz, &ldquo;There isn&rsquo;t one person in America who is going to be fooled by this propaganda campaign. The reporting has been so positive you&rsquo;d think they were on BP&rsquo;s payroll. Oh, that&rsquo;s right, they are on BP&rsquo;s payroll. Maybe that explains it.&rdquo;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Want authenticity? You&rsquo;ve got it in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Nungesser"><font color="#800080">Billy Nungesser</font></a>, president of Plaquemines Parish, La., and force of nature. &ldquo;You know, instead of hiring PR people to talk about ballets on the water, if we just do the right thing, sit down and deploy every piece of equipment, there's something [for BP] to hang your hat on,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Look in the camera and say, &lsquo;We're doing everything feasibly possible to save coastal Louisiana, to contain this oil, to pick it up, to make this wrong right. There's your PR. But don't just say it. Go out there and do it, and the PR will take care of itself.&rsquo;&rdquo;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Pretty good counsel.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">I still like the idea of brand journalism, but an unprecedented environmental disaster has somehow yielded an unprecedented PR disaster. So maybe BP should just give it a rest.</div>
NewsCommentarySocial MediaCommunicationsWed, 30 Jun 2010 15:30:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/6/30/Next-BP-victim-brand-journalismBP's transparency -- as clear as mudhttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/5/26/BPs-transparency--as-clear-as-mud
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">If BP gets anything, they finally seem to get the need for transparency in a crisis, at least to the degree that they have <a href="http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&amp;contentId=7062328"><font color="#800080">begun</font></a> streaming live <a href="http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/homepage/STAGING/local_assets/bp_homepage/html/rov_stream.html">video </a>from the gusher that has spewed <a href="http://alaskadispatch.com/blogs/political-animal/5275-how-much-oil-has-spilled-in-the-gulf-of-mexico">millions of gallons</a> of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. In this case, transparency is not pretty.</div>
<p><iframe width="310" height="300" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="" marginheight="5" src="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/oil-ticker/" marginwidth="5"></iframe></p>
NewsCommentaryEnvironmentCommunicationsWed, 26 May 2010 14:21:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/5/26/BPs-transparency--as-clear-as-mudFables of Abundancehttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/5/19/Fables-of-Abundance
<p><em><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt">Today&rsquo;s blog is part two in a series posted by guest blogger, <a href="mailto:emarshall@beaupre.com"><span style="font-style: normal">Ed Marshall</span></a>, a Senior Account Manager at Beaupre.</span></em></p>
<p><img hspace="4" alt="" vspace="4" align="right" width="200" height="300" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5182NcbJOUL._SL500_.jpg" /></p>
<p>The other week,&nbsp;I <a href="http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/5/4/Are-we-there-yet-Time-for-energy-efficiency-to-get-its-sexy-on"><font color="#800080">blogged</font></a> that renewable energy alone will not be able to compensate for an anticipated &nbsp;precipitous decline in world oil supply. We said we need to invest in energy efficiency to bridge the gap. This week, I look at the challenges of becoming a more efficient world, starting with you and me.</p>
<div>
<p>In the mind of the average consumer the image of efficiency and its close cousin conservation is one of deprivation and austerity. Certainly not the stuff that made America great! America was built on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fables-Abundance-Cultural-History-Advertising/dp/0465090753/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1273506966&amp;sr=8-1">fables of abundance</a>.</p>
<p>But doesn&rsquo;t efficiency have its own attractive tale to tell? Take the iPad, for instance. Turns out it&rsquo;s really energy efficient. Among the many ballyhooed features of the iPad, right up there with the sexy interface, is its <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6300H320100401">amazing</a> <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5510095/ipad-test-notes-battery-life"><font color="#800080">battery</font></a> <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/ipad-battery-appears-to-exceed-apple-estimates/7897">life</a>. Wait - praise for efficiency? Sure, because that&rsquo;s efficiency delivering something people really want; truly mobile computing. After all, who wants a mobile device that needs to be tethered to an outlet? The iPad isn&rsquo;t just slick fun &ndash; it&rsquo;s slick , fun, freedom!</p>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt">The trick is to find similar gut-level needs that, &ldquo;marketed&rdquo; effectively, can motivate us to adopt ways of living that reduce our spiraling energy demand and offset some of the anticipated energy gap mentioned in my last post. So, what gut-level need can energy efficiency deliver?</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt">How about <em>control</em> for starters? People like the ideas of self-sufficiency and self-determination. Especially in uncertain times, feeling like you have a firm grip on your ship&rsquo;s tiller is <a href="http://comics.com/arlo&amp;janis/2010-04-13/"><font color="#800080">empowering</font></a>.&nbsp;Technologies and initiatives that increase energy efficiency could be positioned as delivering personal control &ndash; a bulwark against the uncertainties of see-sawing gasoline prices, rising utility bills, increased commuting costs and carbon taxes.</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt">Or, what about <em>status</em>? People like to stand out, get noticed, feel like they&rsquo;re ahead of the pack in some way. When gasoline breached $4 a gallon in the US back in 2008, a new breed of braggart emerged on the American car scene &ndash; the <a href="http://motherjones.com/politics/2007/01/guy-can-get-59-mpg-plain-old-accord-beat-punk">hypermiler</a>. In the world of hypermiling, status wasn&rsquo;t about horsepower and <img hspace="4" alt="" vspace="4" align="left" width="300" height="165" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/01/31/science/earth/31compete_span.jpg" />0-60 times. It was all about miles-per-gallon. Want to be king of the hypermile hill? Drive smarter. Right now, utilities are tapping into that same competitive quest for eco status by sending monthly statements that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/science/earth/31compete.html">show</a> how your energy use stacks up to similar homes in your neighborhood. (It&rsquo;s anonymous.) Many were surprised that the odd-cool look of the Prius sold so well even before the spike in gas prices. They assumed it would be best to camouflage a hybrid under the wrappings of a more traditional looking car body &ndash; like Honda did with its hybrid Civic. But early adopters often want to stand out. Why spend the extra money on planet and climate saving efficiency if nobody notices? The same principle can be applied well beyond the automotive segment.</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt">And there are many more human needs and wants that efficiency can be paired with (how about <a href="http://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4400-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=electronics&amp;qid=1273518695&amp;sr=1-1">efficiency</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-TLD100-Thermal-Detector/dp/B001LMTW2S/ref=pd_bxgy_p_img_b">gadgets</a> for that never ending human need for novelty?), but the point is <em>we need to harness self-interest</em>, not pretend it doesn&rsquo;t exist. We start by choosing and creating the right words, imagery and ideas that motivate action and behavior. Efficiency and conservation have been too often aligned with abstractly noble or utilitarian sentiments; saving the planet or perhaps saving some money (eventually). Getting an efficiency mindset to really take hold demands a belief that it can deliver something personally valuable.</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt">
<p>By building more compelling imagery &ndash; starting with us as marketers and reaching all the way up to the Marketer in Chief &ndash; efficiency has as much, possibly more, intrinsic appeal as alternative energy. After all, lots of the alternative energy stuff is &ldquo;five to 10 years away&rdquo; and seemingly always will be (where is my hydrogen economy?). Insulation, smart glass, telecommuting, car sharing, geothermal heat pumps, new urbanism and smart planning? That&rsquo;s efficiency, and that&rsquo;s here, now ready to deliver more control in uncertain times, status among peers, novelty and more. So, if you&rsquo;re starting out in a quest for green market dominance with a venture that&rsquo;s efficiency or conservation-focused, look to spin a new fable of abundance based on the self-interest needs or wants that your product or service can deliver.&nbsp;</p>
<p style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt" class="Default"><font size="1"><em>Ed Marshall has been in technology PR for over 12 years, following a stint in the non-profit world and a hitch in the journalism trenches at a daily newspaper. A cat magnet, avid reader and part-time unicyclist, Ed can be found most weekends reconfiguring the homestead or trying out yet another Linux distribution.</em></font></p>
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EnergyCommentarySocial MediaCommunicationsWed, 19 May 2010 13:25:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/5/19/Fables-of-AbundanceBP leaking credibility by the barrelhttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/5/14/BP-leaking-credibility-by-the-barrel
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">
<p><img hspace="4" alt="" vspace="4" align="right" width="375" height="225" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2010/5/8/1273321857108/Deepwater-Horizon-oil-rig-006.jpg" />Are you as big a fool as I am? I&rsquo;ve been giving BP the benefit of the doubt on the gulf oil disaster &ndash; until <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/14/gulf.oil.spill/index.html?hpt=T2">this morning</a>, when I learned that the gusher could be spewing 11 to 16 times as much as BP has been saying. That's equivalent to a new <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill">Valdez spill</a> every four or five days. The bigger estimate is from of a Purdue University fluids expert without an apparent dog in this fight.</p>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Either volume is a lot for the ecosystem to choke down. But if BP&rsquo;s 5,000-barrels-a-day estimate is spin (and as of this morning on CNN, BP was sticking to that estimate), it has colossally backfired. In addition to the permanent damage to the company brand, the number has real implications for how you clean the mess up.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&ldquo;I am concerned that an underestimation of the oil spill&rsquo;s flow may be impeding the ability to solve the leak and handle the management of the disaster,&rdquo; said U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass. &ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t understand the scope of the problem, the capacity to find the answer is severely compromised.&rdquo;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Until this morning, I&rsquo;ve viewed the tragedy less as a product of BP&rsquo;s greed than the inevitable consequence of our oil &nbsp;addiction. To the extent we drive more miles than we need to in autos bigger than we require, I reasoned, we all share blame for this. Now, I just wonder what else BP is hiding.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">So, apparently, does the Today show&rsquo;s Ann Curry, who <a href="http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/37147007#37147007">grilled</a> (video) BP&rsquo;s COO this morning, putting the company&rsquo;s sinking credibility on excruciating display. Spoiler alert: If you expected an apology, you&rsquo;ll be disappointed.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">At the risk of putting too fine a point on it, in a crisis, come clean. Early on. It&rsquo;s how you start making the best of a bad situation -- or in this case, a situation going from bad to worse.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><br />
- - - - - -&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Posts from our sister <a href="http://www.beaupre.com/blog"><font color="#800080">blog</font></a> on crisis communications:&nbsp;</div>
<ul>
<li>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"><a href="http://www.beaupre.com/blog/index.cfm/2010/3/22/Seven-social-media-lessons-from-Nestles-reputation-crisis"><strong>Seven social media lessons from Nestle's reputation crisis</strong></a></div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"><a href="http://www.beaupre.com/blog/index.cfm/2010/2/1/Toyota-should-meet-recall-questions-with-big-doses-of-transparency"><strong><font color="#800080">Toyota should meet recall questions with big doses of transparency</font></strong></a></div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"><a href="http://www.beaupre.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/11/30/Tigers-companies-and-governors-cant-hide-any-more"><strong>Why Tiger Woods, companies and governors can't hide any more</strong></a></div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"><a href="http://www.beaupre.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/7/13/How-to-handle-a-crisis--10-communication-tips"><strong>How to handle a crisis - 11 communications tips</strong></a></div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"><a href="http://www.beaupre.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/2/13/Hesitation-kills-reputations"><strong>Hesitation kills reputations</strong></a></div>
</li>
</ul>
NewsCommentaryCommunicationsFri, 14 May 2010 13:20:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/5/14/BP-leaking-credibility-by-the-barrelOur planet's situation: 'crisis' or 'quest'?http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/4/14/Our-planets-situation-crisis-or-quest
<p><img width="275" vspace="4" hspace="4" height="274" align="right" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2695/4520215171_a14cff719e_m.jpg" alt="Our planet&rsquo;s situation: crisis or quest? - www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak" /></p>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font size="2">How we brand environmental challenges may have a big impact on our planet&rsquo;s fate.</font></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font size="2">So suggests New York Times &ldquo;</font><a href="http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/"><font size="2">Dot Earth</font></a><font size="2">&rdquo; blogger Andrew C. Revkin. &ldquo;If I had to choose one of two bumper stickers for our car &mdash; <strong>CLIMATE CRISIS</strong> or <strong>ENERGY QUEST</strong> &mdash; I&rsquo;d choose the latter,&rdquo; he </font><a href="http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/on-the-energy-gap-and-climate-crisis/"><font size="2">says</font></a><font size="2">. &ldquo;This doesn&rsquo;t mean I reject the idea that we face a climate crisis. I just don&rsquo;t think that phrase is a productive way to frame this challenge, particularly as defined over the last few years </font><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/weekinreview/23revkin.html"><font size="2">in the heated policy debate</font></a><font size="2">.&rdquo;</font></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font size="2">If we must consider ourselves in crisis, he says, let&rsquo;s define it right. Citing a colleague&rsquo;s argument, Revkin views <em>crisis</em> less as catastrophe or cause for alarmism than a crucial or decisive moment, <em>a turning point</em>. This approach seems to cool passion without sacrificing urgency. And though Revkin sees a need to act immediately, he wants to focus on the positive.</font></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;"><font size="2" color="#000000">I&rsquo;m talking about a sustained quest, from the household light socket to the boardroom, the laboratory to the classroom, the&nbsp;</font><a href="http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/007800.html"><font size="2" color="#000000">smart post-industrial American city</font></a><font size="2" color="#000000"> to the struggling, (literally)&nbsp;</font><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/29/world/africa/29power.html?ei=5088&amp;en=958742361646e80d&amp;ex=1343361600&amp;partner=rssnyt&amp;emc=rss&amp;pagewanted=print"><font size="2" color="#000000">powerless sub-Saharan village</font></a><font size="2" color="#000000">. This is not some onerous task, but an active, positive assertion that the ways we harvest and use energy &mdash; an asset long taken for granted and priced in ways that mask its broader costs &mdash; really do matter. Dry places do this with water all the time. In Israel, there is no toilet without two flush options. It&rsquo;s not some goofball green concept; it&rsquo;s just the way things are done.</font></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></div>
<p style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font size="2">The </font><a href="http://www.triplepundit.com/2010/04/sustainability-communications-four-tips-for-bringing-your-written-materials-to-life/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TriplePundit+%28Triple+Pundit%29"><font size="2">TriplePundit blog&rsquo;s Deborah Fleischer</font></a><font size="2"> has some complementary ideas for effective sustainability communications. Although the post has corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports in mind, the principles can apply to any communication.</font></p>
<p style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">&nbsp;</p>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<p><font size="2"><strong>Tell positive stories</strong> about specific challenges and successes.</font></p>
<p><font size="2"><strong>Make a specific request.</strong> Instead of calling for a new green mindset, for example, suggest specific actions like printing on double sides or reusing water bottles.</font></p>
<p><font size="2"><strong>Engage people&rsquo;s emotions</strong>. Data and logic are great, now bring it home. <em>How many trees does that equal?</em> Present a photo of a forest as big as the thing you're talking about, or work in three dimensions by, say, creating a sculpture from all the plastic water bottles you&rsquo;ve collected in your office. For mind-blowing, emotion-charged examples of consumption run amok, see artist </font><a href="http://www.chrisjordan.com/"><font size="2" color="#800080">Chris Jordan</font></a><font size="2">&rsquo;s portraits of mass consumption.</font></p>
<p><font size="2">Finally<strong>, use non-controlling language.</strong> Try <em>please think about</em> and <em>please consider</em> instead of <em>you should</em>.</font></p>
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<p><font size="2">Whether your planet or your business is at stake (somehow I believe they&rsquo;re interconnected), how you say it is important.</font></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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CommentaryBrandingClimateCommunicationsWed, 14 Apr 2010 10:00:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/4/14/Our-planets-situation-crisis-or-questSeven social media lessons from Nestle's environmental reputation crisishttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/3/22/Seven-social-media-lessons-from-Nestles-reputation-crisis
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><img hspace="4" alt="" vspace="4" align="left" width="250" height="164" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1WaO1OGuwzI/SsCc4xE24NI/AAAAAAAAMUE/GFqmtIGjkQ4/s400/nestle-logo.jpg" />If a company still doesn't &quot;get&quot; how social media has changed the rules of branding by empowering consumers, look no further than the ongoing Nestle firestorm.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">Nestle has been in trouble for awhile, mostly related to its continuing use of palm oil in its products. Palm oil is linked to environmental nastiness, including deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions and endangered species loss. </span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">Caroline McCarthy of CNET News <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20000805-36.html"><font color="#800080">shared a balanced post</font></a> about the Nestle brand crisis, triggered by ticked off consumers on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nestle/24287259392"><font color="#800080">Facebook</font></a>. Nestle was clueless about the power shift enabled by social media and acted in an old-school authoritarian &ldquo;we own the brand&rdquo; way. It not only didn&rsquo;t work, it backfired. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">There are vital lessons from the Nestle debacle for professional communicators advising their execs or clients:&nbsp; </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="text-indent: -0.25in; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in"><span style="font-size: 10pt">1.<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman'">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt">Before diving into social media, make sure key decision makers who think they want to go social media truly &ldquo;get&rdquo; how the game is played. It&rsquo;s not a press release. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="text-indent: -0.25in; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in"><span style="font-size: 10pt">2.<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman'">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt">Make sure they understand how Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. aren&rsquo;t one way vehicles (where the brand dominates the message), but an invitation to a never ending dance with constantly changing partners, some of whom are never your friend and may only want to dance if they can slap your ego and try to make you a better dancer. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="text-indent: -0.25in; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in"><span style="font-size: 10pt">3.<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman'">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt">Don&rsquo;t go social media unless the brand is willing to take the risk of <a href="http://www.beaupre.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/8/27/10-steps-to-zipline-branding"><font color="#800080">jumping off the cliff</font></a>, giving up control to customers and consumers who will express their viewpoints, both positive and negative. <img hspace="4" alt="" vspace="4" align="right" width="300" height="188" src="http://www.landcoalition.org/cpl-blog/wp-content/uploads/fight-the-nestle-monster-logo-from-baby-milk-action-2.jpg" /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="text-indent: -0.25in; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in"><em><span style="font-size: 10pt">4.<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman'">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></em><span style="font-size: 10pt">If your company or client wants to control the message, then social media isn&rsquo;t for them. Look at how Nestle tried to tell people not to post their logos. It will incur a wrath not unlike <em>&quot;It&rsquo;s not OK for people to use altered versions of your logos but it&rsquo;s OK for you to alter the face of Indonesian rainforests? Wow!&quot;</em></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: -0.25in; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in"><span style="font-size: 10pt">5.<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman'">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt">Creating LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter accounts is just the first step. The goal isn&rsquo;t to tweet or post, it&rsquo;s to build an active community and an authentic two-way relationship based on trust.&nbsp;It&rsquo;s easy to get started in social media, but time-consuming and challenging to remain engaged and build a following. </span></div>
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<div style="text-indent: -0.25in; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in"><span style="font-size: 10pt">6.<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman'">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt">Remember that even if your company or client decides not to engage in social media, this won&rsquo;t stop rants, rebellion and revolution. People will find a way to express themselves and let it be known they&rsquo;re disturbed, upset, confused, disappointed or whatever the view. The train has left the station, so be prepared. </span></div>
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<div style="text-indent: -0.25in; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in"><span style="font-size: 10pt">7.<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman'">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt">As we&rsquo;ve learned from Nestle (and so many others), people don&rsquo;t want to be scammed, ignored or mistreated. It <em>will </em>come back to bite you. So if your exec or client wants social media to become a positive tool, the brand must be a concerned good listener prepared to take action to correct situations that aren&rsquo;t right. </span></div>
CommentaryBrandingSocial MediaCommunicationsMon, 22 Mar 2010 14:10:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/3/22/Seven-social-media-lessons-from-Nestles-reputation-crisisA rosy idea for clean energy measurementhttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/3/10/A-rosy-idea-for-clean-energy-measurement
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2"><img hspace="4" alt="Arthur Rosenfeld - the godfather of energy efficiency" vspace="4" align="right" width="150" height="186" src="http://www.fas.org/about/_images/Art-Rosenfeld.jpg" />In a recent news release for a cleantech client I struggled to quantify the energy savings and environmental impact that the technology delivered in a meaningful way. Communicating clean energy benefits can often trigger a mish-mash of metrics, like energy units (e.g. kilowatts/hour) made, dollars saved or potential pollutants scrubbed from the atmosphere. </font></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2">To that end, <em><a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=rosenfeld-energy-savings">Scientific American</a></em> </font><font size="2">introduces us to a new scientific measurement for energy savings called the &quot;Rosenfeld&quot; named after the so-called &quot;godfather of energy efficiency,&quot; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rosenfeld">Scientist Arthur Rosenfeld</a>.</font></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2">One Rosenfeld equals an energy savings of 3 billion kilowatt-hours per year -- the same amount generated by a 500-megawatt coal-run power plant. As <em>Scientific American</em> describes it, the Rosenfeld metric provides a much needed:&nbsp;</font>&nbsp;</div>
<blockquote style="margin-right: 0px" dir="ltr">
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2"><em>&quot;... measurement that would help regular people visualize efficiency's massive potential, but also be as accurate as possible.&quot;</em></font>&nbsp;</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2">Weight Watchers have calories, cars have MPG and my woodstove boasts in BTUs. It's not a bad idea that communications pros in clean tech industries coalesce around a standard, meaningful unit of energy savings measurement. And while we&rsquo;re at, let&rsquo;s nickname it the<em> Rosy</em> for simplicity&rsquo;s sake.</font></div>
CommentaryBrandingEnergyCommunicationsWed, 10 Mar 2010 15:15:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/3/10/A-rosy-idea-for-clean-energy-measurementHummer: a beast of a brandhttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/2/25/Hummer-a-beast-of-a-brand
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<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><img width="275" height="206" align="right" alt="" src="http://www.desktoprating.com/wallpapers/car-and-motorcycles-wallpapers-pictures/hummer-h2-car-wallpaper.jpg" />Branding is tricky business. <br />
<br />
It&rsquo;s not enough to crisply differentiate a product, provide stellar service and reinforce your customers&rsquo; delusions of grandeur. The whims of the market might still bring you down.<br />
<br />
That&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s happened with the Hummer. Say what you want about the make, now being </font><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/02/24/business/AP-GM-Hummer.html?_r=2"><font face="Verdana" size="2">euthanized</font></a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> by GM, but you can&rsquo;t deny the brand's potency. Huge. Tough. Dangerous. Cavalier. I am a force. Reckon with my a**.<br />
<br />
The problem was, the brand couldn't contain its own machismo. Like a downhill ski racer hurtling off the course, the machine&rsquo;s daring was its downfall. Utterly and unapologetically ginormous, it came to stand for everything that&rsquo;s wrong with our auto-addicted, fossil-fueling, high-beaming selves. As we used to chant on the playground, <span style="font-style: italic;">Hey! Hey! Get outta my way! I just got back from the USA!</span><br />
<br />
Which reminds me, a buddy of mine rolled up on a sexy new </font><a href="http://www.bmc-racing.com/index.php?eID=tx_cms_showpic&amp;file=uploads%2Fpics%2FSLC01_teamred_BX_33.jpg&amp;width=1200m&amp;height=700m&amp;bodyTag=%3Cbody%20style%3D%22margin%3A0%3B%20background%3A%23fff%3B%22%3E&amp;wrap=%3Ca%20href%3D%22javascript%3Aclose%28%29%3B%22%3E%20|%20%3C%2Fa%3E&amp;md5=794252052929e77034312890e6c50bc6"><font face="Verdana" size="2">BMC</font></a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> racing bicycle the other day. Beefy, squared-off tubes. Not to be messed with.<br />
<br />
&ldquo;Dude,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;that baby is the Hummer of bikes.&rdquo;<br />
<br />
Like a good liberal, he blanched. <br />
<br />
Oops, sorry, meant that as a compliment. He likes the bike because it&rsquo;s Swiss.<br />
<br />
Anyway, a pending deal to sell Hummer to a Chinese concern fell through this week, prompting GM to say it will begin the &ldquo;orderly wind-down of the Hummer operations.&rdquo; As with the other brand GM recently tried to retire, Saab, there&rsquo;s a glimmer of </font><a href="http://www.hummerguy.net/hummer-news/hummer-its-not-over-yet"><font face="Verdana" size="2">hope</font></a><font face="Verdana" size="2">. That would be of interest to the 3,000 people who make and sell Hummers in the US, including 950 who work at an already shrinking GM plant in Shreveport, La.<br />
<br />
If the brand does collapse, you can&rsquo;t blame it on the brand per se. Gas prices, recessionary times, heightened eco-consciousness and a more touchy-feely zeitgeist also played roles. But wait, that&rsquo;s getting back to the brand, isn&rsquo;t it? <br />
<br />
After all, the Hummer isn&rsquo;t the only vehicle that gets paltry mileage. In fact, the </font><a href="http://www.hummerguy.net/hummer-news/hummer-its-not-over-yet"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Hummer H3T</font></a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> at 16 mpg was green enough to get on the </font><a href="http://www.edmunds.com/cash-for-clunkers/new-car-candidates.html"><font face="Verdana" size="2">cash-for-clunkers</font></a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> trade-up list &ndash; not as a clunker but as an approved replacement. There&rsquo;s a fair number of </font><a href="http://www.fueleconomy.gov/FEG/bymake/Audi2010.shtml"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Audis </font></a><font face="Verdana" size="2">and </font><a href="http://www.fueleconomy.gov/FEG/bymake/BMW2010.shtml"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Beemers </font></a><font face="Verdana" size="2">in that mileage range, and no one's callilng for their demise.</font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2">So maybe the Hummer got a bad rap. Or maybe it didn&rsquo;t. Either way, the Hummer is gone (nearly). In the elegiac words of the Bard of Big, </font><a href="http://www.hummerpedia.org/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Hummerpedia.org</font></a><font face="Verdana" size="2">:</font></p>
</div>
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<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="font-style: italic;">This is the end, my only Hummer friend, the end. Bad news for those who love the H make</span>.</font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2">&lt;sniff!&gt; Gone, perhaps, but not forgotten. It was a beast of a brand.</font></p>
</div>
GreenNewsCommentaryCommunicationsThu, 25 Feb 2010 13:16:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/2/25/Hummer-a-beast-of-a-brandSmart grid marketers rejoicehttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/2/5/Smart-grid-marketers-rejoice
<div><span style="font-size: 9pt"><img align="right" alt="" src="http://www.next100.com/smartgrid_diagram.jpg" />Marketers for smart grid products have had it rough because it's like trying to sell a movie without a story line. Few people outside the energy industry have a clue as to how the smart grid will work. Unresolved standards keep us from knowing what it will be made out of. And the smart grid's promise of energy efficiency and cleaner air have been unsubstantiated guesses at best. </span></div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size: 9pt">But on this last point, smart grid marketers now have a reason to smile. The U.S. Department of Energy has done the math and has finally wrapped some great numbers around smart grid efficiencies, providing much-needed fuel for the marketing machine. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 9pt">According to a new <a href="http://energyenvironment.pnl.gov/news/pdf/PNNL-19112_Revision_1_Final.pdf">DOE report</a>, the smart grid will enable us to cut energy consumption by 12% by 2030, and cut carbon emissions from power plants by the same amount. </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 9pt">Smart grid marketers can now crisply message around how they're going to reduce your electric bill while also greening the planet. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 9pt">But for the message to stick, they also have to tackle the other fore mentioned obstacles by scrubbing the unnecessary technobabble from smart grid conversations. Today, smart grid marketers trumpet things like <em>Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)</em>, <em>peak-load demand response</em> and <em>home area networks (HAN</em>s). These terms are fine for B2B sales and marketing within the energy industry. But to create the consumer pull-demand that could accelerate smart grid deployments, marketers will need to create a new consumer-friendly lexicon.</span></p>
</div>
NewsEnergyCommunicationsFri, 05 Feb 2010 21:04:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/2/5/Smart-grid-marketers-rejoiceGetting off the grid and into green biz: one man's storyhttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/1/27/Getting-off-the-grid-and-into-green-biz-one-mans-story
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><img vspace="4" hspace="4" align="right" alt="Dave Bonta" src="http://solarliving.aawsom.net/workshops/images/dave061.jpg" />Dave Bonta hasn&rsquo;t paid an electric bill in 12 years. He has no heating bill, either.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">That&rsquo;s because he kicked his 40 kilowatt/hr electricity habit in the 1990s and used solar electricity to fill the gap. &ldquo;I learned to live on less,&rdquo; he told an audience at <a href="http://www.riverrunbookstore.com/">RiverRun</a> bookstore the other night. &ldquo;Surprise, I made it to one kilowatt. It wasn&rsquo;t hard.... It&rsquo;s kind of nice to think we can throw our electric bills away. It&rsquo;s kind of empowering.&rdquo;</div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">To reduce his power usage, Bonta &ndash; who has since co-authored the &ldquo;<a href="https://riverrunbookstore.theretailerplace.com/MLBX/actions/searchHandler.do?userType=MLB&amp;tabID=BOOKS&amp;itemNum=ITEM:3&amp;key=0008312180&amp;nextPage=booksDetails&amp;parentNum=11542">The New Solar Home</a>&rdquo; and created the <a href="http://www.usasolarstore.com/solar/">USA Solar Store</a> chain &ndash; replaced light bulbs, got an energy-efficient washing machine, switched from a vacuum cleaner to a broom, and tossed the electric toothbrushes. <img width="250" vspace="4" hspace="4" height="230" align="left" alt="USA Solar Store - http://www.usasolarstore.com/solar/ - Dave Bonta" src="http://usasolarstore.com/joomla/images/stories/miscimages/davespainting.jpg" />&ldquo;Anything that could be done with human power we did.&rdquo; Even the press he used in his printing business was human-powered. He pedaled it.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Once he&rsquo;d shrunk his energy footprint, he installed a small-scale solar electricity system in his rustic Vermont home. Printing customers immediately peppered him with questions about his set-up. That&rsquo;s when the light bulb went off. He could <em>sell</em> this stuff, along with the know-how. Which is exactly what USA Solar Stores do, and the chain now has 27 stores in 11 states. It&rsquo;s &ldquo;about to grow like wildfire,&rdquo; he says earnestly.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Bonta models his stores after the crunchy old Gateway stores, where the PCs were displayed on barnboard tables and salespeople didn&rsquo;t bug you till you had a question. At USA Solar Stores, you can get anything from a conversation to a compact fluorescent light bulb to a full-fledged solar electricity setup. Or you can come in, look and leave. No worries. In any case, Bonta&rsquo;s team is eager to address what he calls the three solar bogey men: expense, viability, aesthetics.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in;"><strong>Bogey Man #1: Solar electricity is too expensive.</strong> Bonta will look at your current electric bill, figure in current incentives, find ways to reduce your demand, and show you how long it will take to pay off your gear. Even if the incentives disappear, he says, it&rsquo;s still a good deal. The joy of sticking it to the man? Priceless.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in;">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in;"><strong>Bogey Man #2: It doesn&rsquo;t work too well. </strong>Wrong, he says.There&rsquo;s a myth that if you wait, solar technology will get less expensive and super technology will come along. &ldquo;The way it is now is pretty good. The technology is there, and the only thing missing is people who will try it.&rdquo;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in;">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in;"><strong>Bogey Man #3: It&rsquo;s ugly</strong>. No, Bonta says, solar is becoming increasingly &ldquo;building integrated&rdquo; &ndash; where it&rsquo;s embedded in your roof, not tacked on like an afterthought. And you don&rsquo;t need it on your house at all. Bonta&rsquo;s panels are on his shed, which gets better light anyway. The homes in his book are of jaw-dropping beauty.</div>
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<p>Bonta is a softspoken guy. Although he has the conviction of a preacher, he has the slickness of, well, the guy who melted down in his first speech to the Rotary. But in the bookstore, once he warmed up you could tell he will not be denied: &ldquo;Everything we can do to get our country on a sustainable path, we&rsquo;re going to do.&rdquo; If not, he says, generations will hold us accountable for the demise of the world&rsquo;s ecology. &ldquo;We can either explain it to them from a wheelchair, or fix it now.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
</div>
CleantechRenewable EnergySustainableElectricityEnergyCommunicationsSolarWed, 27 Jan 2010 16:20:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/1/27/Getting-off-the-grid-and-into-green-biz-one-mans-storyA new generation of products wraps stodgy concept of conservation in sexy new clotheshttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/1/19/A-new-generation-of-products-wraps-stodgy-concept-of-conservation-in-sexy-new-clothes
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<p align="right"><img alt="Covalent&rsquo;s organic solar concentrator - www.covalent.com" align="left" width="250" height="167" src="http://www.jetsongreen.com/images/2008/07/13/solarcellssmall.jpg" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center">&nbsp;<font size="1"><a href="http://www.covalentsolar.com/ ">Covalent's</a> organic solar concentrator</font></p>
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<p>Not too long ago I described conservation and efficiency as the homely sisters in the sustainable energy world because there were no iconic products that symbolize efficiency the way wind farms and solar panels symbolize their respective industries. I was wrong. Epically wrong.</p>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">The U.S. Department of Energy recently published a list of companies&nbsp;that received grants to develop energy efficiency technologies. Many of these products are relatively boring, designed to toil away deep in the bowels of a power generation system, squeezing out delivering a few more watts here and a few more degrees there. Others, though, really capture the imagination. They show that energy efficiency doesn&rsquo;t have to be a dud in the public eye. It can excite the popular imagination and communicate the message that using less energy is the single nicest thing you can do for the Earth until renewable energy usurps fossil fuels. And some of these efficiency products are, if you&rsquo;ll grant some latitude on the use of the word, sexy.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Take Nanotrons, a division of <a href="http://www.agiltron.com/">Agiltron</a>. Nanotron is working on a long-lasting reflective coating to improve on today&rsquo;s short-lived coatings. Paint Nanotron&rsquo;s coating on your building&rsquo;s roof, then watch your cooling costs drop. <a href="http://www.kazakcomposites.com/"><font color="#800080">Kazak Composites</font></a> &nbsp;is developing building panels that retain heat and coolness, and &ldquo;know&rdquo; when to release them to keep room temperatures even. Lower air conditioning bills in a can? Smart sheetrock? Not bad.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Even the stuff that will work under the covers has a good cool quotient. <a href="http://www.masshightech.com/stories/2008/05/26/weekly10-Clark-U-startup-goes-with-2M-flow.html">Machflow Energy</a>, for example, is using exotic gases like krypton and xenon in a heat pump that makes refrigerators, freezers and air conditioners run on less electricity and with no environmental damage. Considering that heating and cooling systems emit over a half billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, according to the DOE, efficiency improvements make a huge difference to the environment. And you thought krypton was Superman&rsquo;s home planet and xenon was the warrior princess&rsquo; brother.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Some products combine efficiency with one of the other marquee sustainable energy sources. <a href="http://www.covalentsolar.com/"><font color="#800080">Covalent Solar</font></a> is developing coated glass that improves solar voltaic efficiency by concentrating solar energy on dense arrays of solar cells at the edges of the glass, reducing the overall number of cells needed to produce the same amount of power as a larger solar array. <a href="http://www.ginerinc.com/">Giner Electrochemical Systems</a>, LLC., is working on a new way to produce hydrogen (fuel cells, anyone?) with less electricity than current production methods.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">So back to the use of &ldquo;sexy.&rdquo; Maybe &ldquo;interesting&rdquo; or &ldquo;fascinating&rdquo; would have been more appropriate words to describe these up-and-coming efficiency technologies, but they lack the necessary sizzle. Energy efficiency needs to be in the public&rsquo;s face &ndash; and not just the &ldquo;earth first&rdquo; set. They&rsquo;re already invested. I&rsquo;m talking rank-and-file consumers. The U.S. consumer market consists of more than 100 million households and generates about 17 percent of the nation&rsquo;s greenhouse gas emissions, according to EnergyStar.gov. As much as 30 percent of the energy used to power household heating, cooling and appliances is wasted. The European Union is ahead of the U.S. on the efficiency front. It has already set a goal of cutting its <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/energy/efficiency/index_en.htm">energy consumption 20 percent by 2020</a>, and it knows it needs the mass audience&rsquo;s buy-in to reach that goal. &ldquo;To achieve this goal, it is working to mobilize public opinion, decision-makers and market operators and to set minimum energy efficiency standards and rules on labeling for products, services and infrastructure,&rdquo; the European Energy Agency writes on its <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/energy/efficiency/index_en.htm">Web site</a>. We&rsquo;re not going to make worldwide societal changes that reduce energy consumption by talking like Mr. Spock. Efficiency needs an iconic product that combines a little Angelina Jolie sex appeal with some Steve Jobs salesmanship thrown in for good measure.</div>
</div>
GreenCommentarySustainableBrandingRenewable EnergyCommunicationsTue, 19 Jan 2010 09:25:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2010/1/19/A-new-generation-of-products-wraps-stodgy-concept-of-conservation-in-sexy-new-clothesGovernment aims to crowdsource cleantech innovationhttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2009/12/17/Government-aims-to-crowdsource-cleantech-innovation
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">
<p><a href="http://www.openei.org/"><img hspace="4" alt="Open Environment Information wiki" vspace="4" align="right" width="350" height="218" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2689/4191253490_689446e964_o.jpg" /></a>With solar, wind, PHEVs, geothermal, biofuels and most other green technologies still out of reach for most people, the U.S. Department of Energy wants to try crowdsourcing our way to affordable clean energy.</p>
<p>The DOE recently launched an open-source wiki called <a title="OEI" target="_blank" href="http://www.openei.org/">Open Energy Information (OpenIE.org)</a> as a community platform for collectively solving our energy challenges. What Wikipedia did for socializing world knowledge, OpenIE.org can do for clean technology innovation, the thinking goes.</p>
</div>
<div>&ldquo;The true potential of this tool will grow with the public&rsquo;s participation &mdash; as they add new data and share their expertise &mdash; to ensure that all communities have access to the information they need to broadly deploy the clean energy resources of the future,&rdquo; said Secretary of Energy Steven Chu in the Agency&rsquo;s press release.</div>
<div>
<p>OpenIE.org bills itself as a <a title="http://linkeddata.org" href="http://linkeddata.org/">linked open data</a> platform, trying to create synapses between all the world&rsquo;s energy information &ldquo;to provide improved analyses, unique visualizations, and real-time access to data.&rdquo; Anyone can post and edit information, upload additional data to the site and download information in easy-to-use formats.</p>
</div>
<div>The site currently houses more than 60 clean energy resources and data sets, including maps of worldwide solar and wind potential, information on climate zones, and best practices. To give it even more social cred, OpenIE.org links to the DOE&rsquo;s <a href="http://vibe.nrel.gov/">Virtual Information Bridge to Energy</a> (VIBE), a browseable collection of widgets that provide up-to-date industry information and unique visualizations of clean energy data.</div>
<div>
<p>It&rsquo;s a compelling idea. Most cleantech science is forged within silos, isolated in commercial and academic research labs. A global hive mind of expertise could bring a Red Bull jolt of collective creativity to unstick long-stuck science problems.</p>
</div>
<div>But will the labs be willing to play ball on an open source field if meant opening up their IP to competitors?</div>
CleantechNewsSocial MediaCommunicationsThu, 17 Dec 2009 09:19:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2009/12/17/Government-aims-to-crowdsource-cleantech-innovationWind energy's huge opportunity ... and its challengeshttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2009/9/11/Wind-energys-huge-opportunity--and-its-challenges
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><img hspace="4" alt="" vspace="4" align="left" src="http://www.guy-sports.com/fun_pictures/dali_windmill.jpg" />I see so many windmill blades I feel like Don Quixote. There are at least five windmills &ndash; <em>turbines</em> we call them now, since they&rsquo;re only milling electrons &ndash; within a 20-minute bike ride of my doorstep. These devices hint at the appeal, promise and challenges of wind power as a major energy source for the country and the world.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">A trio of turbine towers spikes the farmland just up the road in Eliot, Maine. Although the proud owners expect an eventual payback, are receiving tax credits, and are putting a few kilowatts back into the grid, their motives are largely ecological: In the first month, John Sullivan&rsquo;s 2.4-kilowatt<a class="FCK__AnchorC FCK__AnchorC FCK__AnchorC" title="" href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1"><span><span><span style="font-size: 12pt"><font size="1">[1]</font></span></span></span></a> turbine &ldquo;<a href="http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20090507-NEWS-905070420">saved</a> 120.4 pounds of CO<sup>2</sup> from going in the air.&rdquo; That&rsquo;s the amount he figures a coal-powered plant would have pumped out making that electricity.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Unfortunately, the next town over, Kittery, is <a href="http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090603/GJNEWS_01/706039919">dismantling</a> the 50-kilowatt turbine it erected in 2008 and returning it to the manufacturer for a refund, citing &ldquo;underperformance&rdquo; of the project. Trees and buildings created turbulence no one had accounted for, and the tower was producing only 15 percent of its projected power.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">But there&rsquo;s more hope back in Eliot. East of the farms, on the banks of the Piscataqua River, deep sea engineer Ben Brickett has been developing a turbine that turns in a breeze as gentle as 2 mph. That&rsquo;s big, because low-wind days are the bane of traditional turbines. Called a <em>variable force generator</em>, Brickett&rsquo;s invention converts wind directly into electricity, bypassing the conventional gearbox. Unlike other turbines, he <a href="http://www.mainebiz.biz/news44862.html">says</a>, it also manages to produce power in proportion to the wind speed, up to 60 mph. His company, Blue Water Concepts, is deep into prototype testing and is attracting interest from academia and manufacturing partners.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">These are just a few small examples of how the Unites States has come to be the <a href="http://www.energy.gov/news2009/7653.htm">world leader</a> in wind power with the fastest-growing capacity.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><strong>A mighty wind</strong></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">The U.S. wind energy industry installed a record-breaking 8,500 megawatts of new wind-generation capacity last year, enough to serve more than 2 million homes, according to the <a href="http://www.awea.org/pubs/factsheets/Market_Update.pdf">American Wind Energy Association</a>. That brought the country&rsquo;s total capacity up to 23,500 megawatts and pumped $17 billion into the economy. The new projects accounted for roughly 42 percent of the entire new power-producing capacity added in 2008. It was like taking more than 7 million cars off the road.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">The country has more than enough wind resources to reach a 20-percent wind energy contribution to the US elecrtricity supply by 2030, according to a <a href="http://www.20percentwind.org/20p.aspx?page=Report">DOE report</a>. We&rsquo;re currently at <a href="http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/epm_sum.html">4 percent</a> for wind, biomass, geothermal, solar, and miscellaneous sources combined.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">As this <a href="http://www1.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/wind_potential.html">DOE map</a> shows, the best wind is on the coasts and in the plains states. Texas leads the country with the most installed wind-based capacity by a wide margin, followed by Iowa, California, Minnesota and Washington.<img hspace="4" alt="" vspace="4" align="right" width="350" height="263" src="http://global-warming.accuweather.com/wind-farm-thumb.jpg" /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Without losing sight of our tremendous progress, to follow is a list of obstacles impeding even more robust wind development. Anyone promoting wind, whether a new turbine design or 500-megawatt wind farm, needs to consider these obstacles as they set out on their crusade.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><strong>Infrastructure</strong></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">The country needs transmission systems that can shuttle power from rural wind farms to urban centers as well as load balancing installations that enable regions to consume a mix of generation sources.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><strong>Aesthetics</strong></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Green, in addition to being good, is fashionable. So your neighbor may never be more welcoming of the sight of a windmill, or fleet of them, on your roof or farm. That said, there&rsquo;s plenty of resistance. The $900 million Cape Wind project slated for Nantucket, Mass., has dragged on in permitting, politics and litigation since 2001. <a href="http://www.saveoursound.org/site/PageServer?pagename=CapeWind_Threats_View">Viewshed impact</a> is high on opponents&rsquo; list of concerns. So why not site wind farms on sparsely populated land? That&rsquo;s not so simple either, as a Wyoming farmer is <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hPppDb6c_44-I-7TjoNgGhoSD3TwD9A8RKMG1">finding out</a>.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><strong>Ecology</strong></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Ten thousand birds, including 80 golden eagles, <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052970203706604574376543308399048.html">die</a> every year at a California wind farm near San Francisco, according to a study by the local community development agency. Wind proponents blame that carnage an unlikely convergence of factors, including bad siting and older turbine technology. On average, they say, wind power&rsquo;s avian toll is extremely <a href="http://www.awea.org/faq/sagrillo/swbirds.html">low</a>.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><strong>Noise</strong></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">No doubt about it, windmills make noise. But the key questions include: How loud? Is the sound of whooshing blades a <em>bad</em> noise? How far away are you? How fast is the wind blowing? Wind proponents put windmill noise in the decibel <a href="http://www.awea.org/smallwind/toolbox/windzone/noise.htm">range</a> of household background noise or the sound of trees and leaves rustling on a blustery day.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><strong>Taxes</strong></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">The government (i.e., taxpayers) has begun issuing $500 million in <a href="http://www.awea.org/newsroom/releases/Wind_Industry_welcomes_Treasury_Dept_Announcement_1Sept09.html">grants</a> to spur wind energy development as part of the economic recovery package. They&rsquo;re a double-edged sword for people worrying about personal and national debt.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><strong>Foreign Investments </strong></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">One company with Spanish DNA has received more than half of that $500 million grant money, says the <a href="http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2009/2009-09-03-093.asp">Environmental News Service</a>. Too many reports like this won&rsquo;t sit well with the public.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><strong>The communications strategy</strong></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">So what does this all mean for the inventor or company promoting wind? The good news is there&rsquo;s abundant popular support and a persuasive case for wind and other renewable energy sources. Yet, as with any complex technology that needs to go in someone&rsquo;s backyard, there is bound to be wariness, if not opposition, to siting proposals.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Consequently, any development effort requires a solid communications plan born out of this strategy:</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<ol style="margin-top: 0in" type="1">
<li style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Identify <em>all</em> the potential benefits of a project, not just those in your market segment or locale. Include the benefits of wind to the planet.</li>
<li style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Talking points promoting your project are just a start. You need data, and there is plenty of it out there. As you can see by the links in this blog, the American Wind Energy Association is a great place to start.</li>
<li style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Develop content up front that documents all of the benefits. Main audiences include the public, planners and regulators.</li>
<li style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Connect with advocacy organizations, politicians, utilities, business groups, landowners, conservationists and educators who are likely to favor your project.</li>
<li style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Anticipate all potential concerns and prepare to address them squarely. Avoid defensiveness or reactivity. Listen and talk rather than argue. Some skeptics just need to be informed.</li>
<li style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Depending on what you&rsquo;re proposing, you could end up with <em>a lot</em> of energized opposition. Make sure you have the arms, legs and content to swiftly and effectively address the concerns.</li>
<li style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">If you believe in your project, stay the course.</li>
</ol>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&hellip;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Some helpful resources from the American Wind Energy Association:</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><a href="http://www.awea.org/smallwind/documents/permitting.pdf">Handbook</a> for permitting small wind turbines:</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><a href="http://www.awea.org/legislative/wind_energy_facts.html">Talking points</a> on the benefits of wind energy.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><a href="http://www.awea.org/sitinghandbook/">Handbook</a> for commercial scale siting.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Wind power <a href="http://www.awea.org/pubs/documents/Outlook_2009.pdf">outlook</a> for 2009</div>
<div><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1">
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><a class="FCK__AnchorC FCK__AnchorC FCK__AnchorC" title="" href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1"><span><span><span style="font-size: 10pt"><font size="1">[1]</font></span></span></span></a><font size="1"> A 5kW turbine is sufficient on average to power a home. Variables include wind speed, turbine height, terrain and home energy usage, according to the American Wind Energy Association.</font></div>
</div>
</div>
CleantechCommentarySustainableElectricityGreenEnergyWindCommunicationsFri, 11 Sep 2009 15:06:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2009/9/11/Wind-energys-huge-opportunity--and-its-challengesHow Marc Gunther found a sustainable voicehttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2009/4/21/How-Marc-Gunther-found-a-sustainable-voice
<p><img height="248" alt="Marc Gunther - Facebook photo" hspace="4" width="200" align="left" vspace="4" src="http://www.facebook.com/profile/pic.php?uid=AAAAAQAQ_-vUT5JoffgauVLW0P_cYQAAAAlpvR6ZepW2bNXIsnjQ3_wc" />Marc Gunther is one of the most respected thinkers, writers and speakers on business, the environment and corporate social responsibility.</p>
<p>Last year, <a href="http://ethisphere.com/100-most-influential-people-in-business-ethics-2008/all-comments/">Ethisphere</a> ranked him # 39 out of 100 &ldquo;influentials&rdquo; in business ethics, ahead of Jim Koch, T. Boone Pickens, James Goodnight and Paul Newman. It&rsquo;s a well-earned reputation.&nbsp;</p>
<p>In a wide-brush conversation, I asked him about his early influences, career highlights and how he became enamored with business ethics and sustainability.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Gunther grew up in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. &ldquo;I was a child of the Sixties.&nbsp;My parents weren&rsquo;t that politically involved, but our Rabbi was part of the civil rights movement; he had marched with Martin Luther King. That inspired me.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I was an idealist, growing up during one of the most interesting times in history with JFK, Martin Luther King, RFK. Incredible social progress was being made, from the civil rights movement to the women&rsquo;s movement. Vietnam and Watergate were happening. This had a big impact on me.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Gunther graduated from Yale in 1973 with an English degree, but couldn&rsquo;t find a job in journalism. His first gig was with a clean air activist group funded by Ralph Nader.&nbsp;&ldquo;I inspected boilers in New York City, making sure pollution controls were being met, working with City enforcement groups. It was literally a dirty job.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Then he cracked journalism.</p>
<p>Over the next two decades, he climbed the newspaper ladder, starting with the <em>Paterson (N.J.) News</em>, then <em>The Hartford Courant</em>, <em>The Detroit News</em>, <em>Detroit Free Press</em> and Washington Bureau of Knight Ridder.&nbsp;He covered many topics, but wrote most often about TV, media, politics and business. Gunther also interpreted the Internet in the nineties, writing stories like &quot;What is cyberspace?&quot; and &quot;What is e-mail?&rdquo;</p>
<p>When <em>Fortune</em> magazine hired him in 1996, he wrote even more about business. &ldquo;I was beginning to wonder what had happened to my idealistic values. I had gotten off track.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Around the time Gunther turned 50, he wrote a cover story for <em>Fortune</em> called &ldquo;<a href="http://www.marcgunther.com/?page_id=37">God and Business</a>.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I interviewed people at the intersection of religion and corporate America. People like Jim Collins of &quot;Built to Last&quot; talked about business and values.&nbsp;I spoke with a Notre Dame priest who also taught MBAs. These people got me thinking about business in a fresh way. They were treating people well and believed business can &ndash; and should be - a force for good, for positive social change.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The story became a turning point for him professionally and personally.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Until then, I had a clich&eacute; view of business. The tension that existed between business and values got me thinking in a fresh way.&nbsp;Suddenly, I was no longer interested in writing about media companies, the entertainment industry, American Idol.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Gunther began writing with &ldquo;a sense of purpose.&rdquo;</p>
<p>He wrote a cover story about the greening of Walmart and one about Jeff Immelt&rsquo;s efforts to reshape the values of General Electric.&nbsp;&ldquo;Those were two very interesting reputational turnarounds.&rdquo;</p>
<p>He wrote a cover piece about Hank Paulson, as well as spirituality in the workplace. He authored stories about the business of carbon finance, the rise of corporate social responsibility, the zero-waste movement, genetically-modified rice, environmental activism, corporate governance, AIDS and gay rights in corporate America.</p>
<p>Last December, Gunther (and about 100 others) was let go by <em>Fortune</em>. He calls this experience &ldquo;a hugely valuable event,&rdquo; because it connected him with even greater numbers of interesting people and opportunities.&nbsp;Gunther likens it to an economic model called creative disruption &ldquo;where things are destroyed and then new things spring up.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The social media revolution is serving him well. His popular <a href="http://www.marcgunther.com/">blog</a> is proliferating. Gunther is on Facebook, YouTube and he&rsquo;s started Tweeting (@MarcGunther).</p>
<p>His&nbsp;blog is being syndicated by two of the most influential online environmental voices, <a href="http://greenbiz.com/">GreenBiz.com</a> and <a href="http://theenergycollective.com/">The Energy Collective</a>.</p>
<p>Proving &quot;creative disruption&quot; brings good karma to good people, Gunther not only still writes for Fortune, he authored the current cover story &ldquo;<a href="http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/13/technology/gunther_electric.fortune/index.htm">Warren Buffett takes charge</a>&rdquo; about the Chinese company BYD.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Gunther smiles and in his self-effacing style says, &quot;This could be a first - a laid off reporter writing a cover story for the publication that let him go, four months after it happened.&quot;<br />
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
CleantechCommentarySustainableSocial MediaCommunicationsTue, 21 Apr 2009 11:35:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2009/4/21/How-Marc-Gunther-found-a-sustainable-voiceIf you're green, prove ithttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2009/3/26/If-youre-green-prove-it
<p><img alt="Green Seal.org" hspace="4" align="left" vspace="4" src="http://www.energystar.gov/ia/news/email/images/greenseal.jpg" />Green is wonderful, especially if you&rsquo;re savoring it in the forest on a pillow of sun-drenched moss.</p>
<p>As a marketing term, though, green is getting old. Overuse and spin have dulled the verdant halo. Increasingly &ldquo;green&rdquo; label may be warning wary consumers they might be getting jerked around. Same with <em>sustainable, fresh, local, organic, natural, recyclable </em>and<em> energy-efficient.</em></p>
<p>Consumers do want to buy green, and despite the recession, four out of five consumers claim they do (<a href="http://greenseal.org/resources/green_buying_research.cfm">survey results</a>). Unfortunately, one in three doesn&rsquo;t know how to verify green claims. Translation: when consumers buy green, often they don&rsquo;t really know what they&rsquo;re buying.</p>
<p>Since buyers need information and sellers need credibility, the next wave of green marketing will rely heavily on proof &ndash; documentation and certification &ndash; just as cars rely on JD Power, and as buildings rely on LEED certification.</p>
<p>Says the <a href="http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/general/gen02.shtm">Federal Trade Commission</a>: &ldquo;Claims that a product or service is &lsquo;environmentally friendly,&rsquo; &lsquo;environmentally safe,&rsquo; &lsquo;environmentally preferable,&rsquo; or &lsquo;eco-safe&rsquo; or labels that contain environmental seals &ndash; say, a picture of the globe with the words &lsquo;Earth Smart' around it &ndash; are unhelpful for two reasons: First, all products, packaging and services have some environmental impact, although some may have less than others. Second, these phrases alone do not provide the specific information you need to compare products, packaging, or services on their environmental merits. Look for claims that give some substance to the claim &ndash; the additional information that explains why the product is environmentally friendly or has earned a special seal.&rdquo;</p>
<p>So what&rsquo;s the seal of approval for green claims? There are options for niche segments of the industry, but no universal seal.</p>
<p>A hundred years after introducing its venerable seal of approval, Good Housek<img height="169" alt="Good Housekeeping Green Seal" width="220" align="right" src="http://www.thedailygreen.com/cm/thedailygreen/images/JA/good-housekeeping-green-logo-md.jpg" />eeping wants a similar role in green affairs, at least when it comes to consumer goods for the household, like appliances, toys, cosmetics, food, beverages. The magazine is <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/environment/2009-03-16-green-seal_N.htm">launching</a>&nbsp; a green seal in the April issue.</p>
<p>The nonprofit <a href="http://www.greenseal.org/">Green Seal</a>,&nbsp; unrelated to Good Housekeeping, also covers consumer goods, but skews toward the institutional and B2B market with categories in construction, food service, office products, transportation and utilities. It has been certifying products since 1992. Green Seal&rsquo;s bona fides are <a href="http://www.greenseal.org/certification/international.cfm ">here </a>Certified Green Seal products and services are <a href="http://www.greenseal.org/findaproduct/index.cfm">here</a>.</p>
<p>The Federal Trade Commission doesn&rsquo;t have a seal, but offers guidelines for avoiding false or misleading green claims, over which it has some enforcement power. <a href="http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/energy/bus42.shtm ">Here</a> are its suggestions for businesses trying to comply with its &ldquo;Green Guides&rdquo; against deceptive green marketing. It defines terms like <em>biodegradable, compostable, recyclable, recycled content </em>and <em>ozone friendly</em>.</p>
<p>The data center community is <a href="http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid80_gci1347798,00.html ">pushing</a> for special LEED standards specifically for power-hungry facilities packed with servers. The criteria would be entirely different from green homes or office buildings.</p>
<p>GreenerChoices.org, launched by the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports in 2005, provides information on appliances, cars, electronics, food and home/garden products. It gives ratings and provides calculators.</p>
<p>Two generally respected labels are <a href="http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/ams.fetchTemplateData.do?template=TemplateA&amp;navID=NationalOrganicProgram&amp;leftNav=NationalOrganicProgram&amp;page=NOPNationalOrganicProgramHome&amp;acct=nop ">USDA Organic</a>&nbsp; for food and <a href="http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=home.index">ENERGY STAR</a>&nbsp; from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy. The Today Show suggests <a href="http://www.greenercars.org">greenercars.org</a>, <a href="http://www.responsiblepurchasing.org ">responsiblepurchasing.org</a> and <a href="http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com">www.cosmeticsdatabase.com</a>.</p>
<p>The <em>Boston Globe</em> recently explored this miasma of green confusion around the carbon footprint issue. The article surprisingly <a href="http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2009/03/18/en_route_to_greener_life_youll_need_a_map/ ">revealed</a> that microwaving food (the don&rsquo;t call it nuking for nothing) is greener than baking it and that bottled water from Fiji or France is probably greener (again, from a carbon standpoint) than Poland Springs. The reason? Bottling plants in France typically use nuclear power-generated electricity, and Pacific Islands plants typically use geothermal-powered electricity. It&rsquo;s fossil fuels in the United States. Bottom line: tap water is your best bet.</p>
<p>Dassault Syst&egrave;mes SolidWorks Corp.&nbsp; of Concord, Mass., (disclosure: a client), is developing <a href="http://www.solidworks.com/sw/news/167_4553_ENU_HTML.htm">software</a>&nbsp; that fosters intelligent green decisions long before products hit the market &ndash; in the design phase. DS SolidWorks makes widely used 3D computer-aided design software, and the new product, code-named &ldquo;Sage,&rdquo; will detail in real time the environmental impact of parts, assemblies and design decisions that go into new products.</p>
<p>The software will feature a dashboard that not only provides information on carbon footprint but also on air impact, water impact and energy consumed in manufacturing. The high-end version will roll up the impact of a product across its environmental life cycle and also include information on energy consumption throughout a product&rsquo;s usage phase.</p>
<p>So those are all the yardsticks. Are you unconfused yet?</p>
<p>Even if we could objectively measure, certify and label products from a perfect set of all-encompassing green standards, we&rsquo;d still have problems like this: Which is better, buying a new eco friendly hybrid or driving your oil-burning microbus into the ground?</p>
<p>In the meantime, if you&rsquo;re marketing a green product that&rsquo;s really green, go to one of the authorities, document your environmental impact, and get certified.</p>
CleantechCommentarySustainableBrandingGreenCommunicationsThu, 26 Mar 2009 14:07:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2009/3/26/If-youre-green-prove-itBiofuel needs a new messagehttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2009/3/9/Biofuel-needs-a-new-message
<p><img height="204" alt="Biofuel needs a new message" hspace="4" width="300" align="right" vspace="4" src="http://www.beaupre.com/blog/userfiles/Image/Biofuel.jpg" />Biofuel startups have a messaging problem. Everyone from scientists and environmentalists to economists and ethicists are hammering the industry in a near-daily barrage of bad press and damning research studies.</p>
<p>I won&rsquo;t spill the entire rap sheet against biofuels &ndash; you can read about them <a href="http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1713431,00.html">here</a> or <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13289">here</a> for starters &ndash; but to summarize the key points affecting public perception:</p>
<ul>
<li>&ldquo;sustainable biofuel&rdquo; is an oxymoron: it takes far more fuel and energy to produce than it delivers</li>
<li>production actually causes more greenhouse gas emissions than it eliminates&nbsp;</li>
<li>it takes farmland away from food crops, increasing prices and world hunger, and</li>
<li>it contributes to rainforest deforestation, to name just a few offenses.</li>
</ul>
<p>These problems are primarily the domain of first-generation biofuels produced from food stock like corn, soybeans or palm oil. Whether its indictments are fair or not, the perception taints the entire industry, including more promising second-generation alternatives such as cellulosic ethanol (which relies on non-food biomass like agricultural waste products and wood chips) and algae-based biofuels.</p>
<p>Yet the industry&rsquo;s only response is the same old message it&rsquo;s been touting since day one:</p>
<p align="center"><em>Biofuel helps reduce our dependence on foreign oil.&nbsp;</em></p>
<p>Important as energy independence may be, the message is ineffective. It&rsquo;s a macroeconomic abstraction at a time when people are struggling with tougher problems closer to home&hellip; like having a job, healthcare and a place to live. It doesn&rsquo;t give me a good reason to care. Besides, don&rsquo;t solar, wind and other more clean energy industries have a more attractive hold on that same message? And for transportation fuels, electric and hybrid plug-in vehicles rule the day.</p>
<p>Weak messaging combined with the steady drumbeat of detractors has caused the biofuel industry to lose control of the debate&hellip;at their own peril. I don&rsquo;t have the answer to biofuel&rsquo;s messaging problem. But if asked, I&rsquo;d steer the discussion this way:</p>
<p><strong>Doing nothing is not an option</strong> - First, re-assert biofuel&rsquo;s essential role in renewable energy diversity. The messaging needs to convey that while it may not be a perfect fuel; it&rsquo;s certainly a better fuel. Detractors may fling their arrows, but what&rsquo;s the alternative? Our oil addition may ebb as new green technologies catch hold, but it won&rsquo;t go away in our generation. Do we just keep pumping and mainlining dirtier fossil fuels into our cars, homes and industries indefinitely? The messaging needs to communicate that doing nothing is not an option. No single renewable energy option can solve all our problems. Biofuel is a necessary part of our clean energy stew.</p>
<p><strong>Make it personal, keep it local</strong> &ndash; The biofuel industry needs to get beyond its national energy independence message and explain how a well structured biofuel ecosystem can benefit local economies and, ultimately, people&rsquo;s lives by:</p>
<ul>
<li>creating jobs in feed stock, production and distribution, and</li>
<li>reducing the negative impact on local environments.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<p>In our state of New Hampshire, for instance, the North Country&rsquo;s economy is reeling from the collapse of the pulp and paper industry. Biomass production from waste wood would not only bring jobs and spur new ancillary businesses, it would lead to better forest management, which boosts tourism. Companies like Pacific Biodiesel and organizations like the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance promote small scale, community-based biofuel production based on local feedstocks, local production and local distribution of sustainable fuel. In other words, &ldquo;grow it here, produce it here, use it here.&rdquo; The messaging needs to communicate how biofuel can positively impact me and everyone else at a personal level.</p>
<p><strong>Rebrand </strong>&ndash; Lastly, biofuel startups need to directly address the early missteps and knocks against the industry openly and honestly. Acknowledge the problems and show what you&rsquo;re doing to fix them. Continued support for current first-generation corn-based ethanol production is a non-starter. It&rsquo;s an unsustainable industry propped up by bad public policy and pols beholding to the agri-biz lobby and Iowa caucus goers. It&rsquo;s a battle that can&rsquo;t be won in the long term.</p>
<p>This requires re-branding. Second-generation biofuel companies need to set themselves apart from their first-generation legacy with branding that communicates how they are different&hellip;how they are better. The branding should communicate the industry&rsquo;s future vision. Today, biofuel startups attempt to differentiate based on their intellectual property and production methods. But who really cares which bacteria or enzymes are best for digesting cellulosic biomass, or which algae strains yield the most oil? Most of us don&rsquo;t. We have faith you&rsquo;ll figure out the science. Just show us the way forward.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The growing attacks on biofuel could have the negative effect of stymieing national and global&nbsp;biofuel policies at a time when breakthroughs in sustainable biofuel production are nearing commercial reality. The biofuel industry needs to reclaim the megaphone and deliver a clear, crisp message that communicates its benefits in a personal way.</p>
CleantechCommentarySustainableBrandingBiofuelCommunicationsMon, 09 Mar 2009 13:24:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2009/3/9/Biofuel-needs-a-new-messageeBay might be kinda sorta greenhttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2009/3/6/eBay-Might-Be-Kinda-Sorta-Green
<p><img height="61" alt="eBay Green Team " hspace="4" width="115" align="left" vspace="4" src="http://www.beaupre.com/blog/userfiles/Image/eBayGreenTeam.gif" />eBay is going public about going green (surprise), announcing a <a href="http://www.ebaygreenteam.com/">Green Team</a> &ldquo;committed to doing even more to help the world buy, sell and think green every day.&rdquo; But will the green tint stick?</p>
<p>Well, they&rsquo;ve got a huge solar power installation. Their business happens to promote reuse, which is better than recycling. They pay for cradle-to-cradle packaging and carbon credits. And who&rsquo;s to say their heart isn&rsquo;t in the right place? But beyond that&hellip;?</p>
<p>Well, there are plenty of newly manufactured consumer items for sale on their site. A lot of small parcels zooming all around the world 24 x 7 (some $2,000 in goods per second, <a href="http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&amp;newsId=20090304005278&amp;newsLang=en">in fact</a>) doesn&rsquo;t do much in the way of reducing fossil fuel consumption. And, as the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/business/media/04adco.html?_r=3&amp;pagewanted=1&amp;ref=business">New York Times</a> points out, the ad campaign will be on virgin paper. Ouch! The article proves yet again that even modest pretensions to green goodness are subject to scrutiny.</p>
<p>Credit eBay for doing some good work. But from a marketing perspective, it&rsquo;s hard to own the green leadership mantle when, by all appearances, your carbon footprint is about the same as everyone else&rsquo;s.</p>
BrandingNewsCommentaryCommunicationsSustainableLegislationGreenCleantechBiofuelFri, 06 Mar 2009 15:15:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2009/3/6/eBay-Might-Be-Kinda-Sorta-GreenWhat PR isn't - nine thingshttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2009/2/18/What-PR-isnt--nine-things
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">Most people equate public relations with media coverage and publicity or confuse it with advertising. They&rsquo;re selling it short &ndash; <em>way short</em>.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; color: rgb(51,51,51)"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>1. <em>PR isn&rsquo;t narrow, it&rsquo;s broad.</em></strong></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">Public relations &ndash; properly practiced &ndash; takes into account every </span><span style="font-size: 10pt">single stakeholder (or &ldquo;public&rdquo;) an organization deals with in its daily life. Employees. Consumers. Local communities. Local/state/federal governments. Bloggers. Partners. Policy makers. Channels. Reporters. Industry analysts. Buy- and sell-side financial analysts. Stockholders. Literally, everyone an organization touches. There may be different levels of priority, but they all have to be factored into the mix.<br />
&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10pt"><img height="150" alt="What PR isn't blog" hspace="4" width="200" align="left" vspace="4" src="http://www.beaupre.com/blog/userfiles/Image/Trust.jpg" /></span><font style="color: rgb(51,51,51)" color="#333333"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>2. </strong><em><strong>PR isn&rsquo;t self-serving, it&rsquo;s serving others.</strong></em></span></font></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">Public relations has a broader - and more strategic &ndash; agenda. It&rsquo;s all about earning a trusted reputation with stakeholders by acting in their best interests &ndash; not the organization&rsquo;s own myopic agenda. An increasing number of <a href="http://www.beaupre.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/2/2/Corporate-social-responsibility-finally-finds-a-home-in-Super-Bowl-09-ads"><font color="#0000ff">smart companies</font></a> are adding corporate social responsibility to their agendas for this very reason.<br />
&nbsp; <br />
<font style="color: rgb(51,51,51)" color="#333333"><strong>3. <em>PR isn&rsquo;t advertising.</em></strong></font> <br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">Advertising exists to sell. Advertisers can communicate whatever they want (within reason of course) because they pay for it. They can decide what they want to say, where they want to say it and how often they want to repeat themselves. It&rsquo;s a controlled process. <br />
&nbsp;<br />
By contrast, public relations is an uncontrolled process. It&rsquo;s an <a href="http://www.beaupre.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/8/27/10-steps-to-zipline-branding">adventure</a>, shifting constantly as it mirrors real-time happenings.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><span style="color: rgb(51,51,51)">&nbsp;</span><br style="color: rgb(51,51,51)" />
<font style="color: rgb(51,51,51)" color="#333333"><strong>4. <em>PR isn&rsquo;t best at awareness building.</em></strong></font></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">There are lots of ways to build awareness. PR&rsquo;s &ldquo;secret sauce&rdquo; is its ability <em>to build credibility.</em></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
<font style="color: rgb(51,51,51)" color="#333333"><strong>5. <em>PR isn&rsquo;t sales, but it influences sales.</em></strong></font><br />
Some people confuse search engine optimization (SEO) with PR. They&rsquo;re two completely different things. SEO is focused on optimizing a Web site to increase targeted traffic. PR is focused on earning a trusted reputation which in turn creates positive word-of-mouth.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; color: rgb(51,51,51)"><em><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>6. PR isn&rsquo;t publicity or marketing.</strong></span></em></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">Public relations is typically relegated to the marketing function. This organizational structure may reflect the perceived role of PR within an organization, namely that it exists to help market products and services. <br />
&nbsp;<br />
While promoting products and services may be a piece of the PR pie, it should never be its sole focus. When it is, public relations becomes a lower-level function called <em>publicity</em>.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><img height="186" alt="PR is a two-way process." hspace="4" width="125" align="right" vspace="4" src="http://www.beaupre.com/blog/userfiles/Image/two-way_traffic_sign.jpg" /></span><font style="color: rgb(51,51,51)" color="#333333"><em><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>7. PR isn&rsquo;t one-way, it&rsquo;s two-way.</strong></span></em></font><span style="font-size: 10pt"><br />
When you send out an e-mail blitz to a prospect, run an online banner ad or issue a news release, these are all examples of one-way communication. The message is crafted and pushed out. These are closed-loop systems. <br />
&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10pt">By contrast, true public relations&nbsp;is an open system and a two-way process. The </span><span style="font-size: 10pt">goal isn&rsquo;t simply to communicate, but rather to be understood and believed. To affect thi</span><span style="font-size: 10pt">s attitudinal change, continual conversations must take place between the communicator and message recipients (publics). If companies/organizations don&rsquo;t listen well or engage in open, honest dialogue with the people they want to influence &ndash; and change behaviors when necessary &ndash;trust isn&rsquo;t built. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10pt">&nbsp;<br />
<font style="color: rgb(51,51,51)" color="#333333"><strong>8. <em>PR isn&rsquo;t fabricated.</em></strong></font></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">The technology industry learned a valuable lesson with the dot com bust. If you spin stories that aren&rsquo;t true, the fabric doesn&rsquo;t survive many wash cycles. <br />
&nbsp;<br />
Effective public relations isn&rsquo;t rooted in hype. People are smart and instinctive; they quickly figure out when unfounded claims are bogus. When they do, brands suffer damage. <br />
&nbsp;<br />
<strong><font style="color: rgb(51,51,51)" color="#333333">9. </font><em><font style="color: rgb(51,51,51)" color="#333333">PR isn&rsquo;t about &ldquo;me,&rdquo; it&rsquo;s about &ldquo;you.&rdquo;</font><br />
</em></strong></span><span style="font-size: 10pt">To become a successful brand, a product or service must become a personal, positive thing &ndash; an individual experience &ndash; something that feeds a person&rsquo;s own self identity. <br />
&nbsp;<br />
Great PR is focused on helping a company strategically figure out how to deliver a consistent brand experience, which in turn, yields a community of interested, involved participants.</span></div>
CleantechCommentaryBrandingCommunicationsWed, 18 Feb 2009 10:31:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2009/2/18/What-PR-isnt--nine-thingsGreen economy will bring new measures of success to replace growthhttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2009/2/13/Green-economy-will-bring-new-measures-of-success-to-replace-growth
<p>
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<p><font size="2"><img height="104" alt="Paul Maeder - Highland Capital Partners" hspace="4" width="127" align="left" vspace="4" src="http://www.beaupre.com/blog/userfiles/Image/Paul_Maeder.jpg" />Venture capitalist </font><a href="http://www.hcp.com/paul_maeder"><font size="2">Paul Maeder</font></a><font size="2"> backed some of the biggest winners of the tech boom - Chipcom, Avid Technologies, Sybase, SQA. Now Maeder, a co-founder of Highland Capital Partners, is turning his attention to companies developing the technology to support an environmentally sustainable economy. Maeder shared his views on progress toward a sustainable economy with the Brodeur&nbsp;and Beaupre Clean Technology Practice.</font></p>
<p><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mvN0Jpyzz7I&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" width="425" height="344" scale="ShowAll" loop="loop" menu="menu" wmode="Window" quality="1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></p>
CleantechCommentarySustainableGreenCommunicationsFri, 13 Feb 2009 11:06:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2009/2/13/Green-economy-will-bring-new-measures-of-success-to-replace-growthSuper Bowl '09 ads tackle corporate social responsibilityhttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2009/2/2/Corporate-social-responsibility-finally-finds-a-home-in-Super-Bowl-09-ads
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">There was plenty of usual advertising fare on last night&rsquo;s Super Bowl, from Pepsi&rsquo;s silly &ldquo;Pepsuber&rdquo; and Budweiser&rsquo;s schmaltzy &ldquo;Clydesdale Circus,&rdquo; to Doritos&rsquo; frat boy &ldquo;Crystal Ball&rdquo; and GoDaddy&rsquo;s steamy &ldquo;Major league enhancement&rdquo; spot. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">But the ads that got my attention weren&rsquo;t peddling products. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">Among a sea of seemingly entertainment-for-entertainment-sake ads were a handful of visionary advertisers who aligned their companies with social causes while simultaneously driving traffic to their corporate Web sites. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><em><span style="font-size: 10pt">Did you notice?</span></em></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></div>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">GE ran a <a href="http://www.ge.com/company/advertising/ads_eco.html?media_id=scarecrow"><font color="#800080">clever spot</font></a> - inspired by the Wizard of Oz&rsquo;s Scarecrow character &ndash; plugging &ldquo;smart grid technology.&rdquo; Yes it was self-promotional, but it also conveyed a &lsquo;larger than GE&rsquo; thought leadership message built around its successful &ldquo;Ecomagination&rdquo; campaign which urges a cleaner, greener world. </span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">First time advertiser <a href="http://pedigree.com/03Adoption/superbowl/"><font color="#800080">Pedigree</font></a> used humor to make a bigger statement. It showed owners of exotic pets frustrated by their behavior:&nbsp;</span></p>
<div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black">An ostrich chasing a mailman</span><font size="2"> </font></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black">a wild boar sticking its head out a family car&rsquo;s rear window to catch some air&nbsp;</span><font size="2"> </font></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black">a rhino rampaging through a living room as the owner called its name to go out for a walk</span><font size="2"> </font></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black">a bull that wouldn&rsquo;t catch a Frisbee. </span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black">Pedigree capped off the frivolity with a crisp message:&nbsp;</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0in; line-height: 14.4pt"><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #666666">Maybe you should get a dog. The Pedigree Adoption Drive. Help us Help Dogs.</span></strong></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><br />
Pedigree has promised to donate one bowl of food to animal shelters every time their Super Bowl commercial or related vignettes are viewed on the <a title="http://pedigree.com/03Adoption/superbowl/" href="http://pedigree.com/Default.aspx?gS=1"><font color="#800080">Pedigree</font></a> Web site. Their objective is to get 4 million Web site views, enabling Pedigree to make the claim that every sheltered dog in America was fed for one day. </span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0in; line-height: 14.4pt">
<p><span style="font-size: 10pt">Denny&rsquo;s literally <a href="http://www.hulu.com/superbowl/55608/super-bowl-xliii-ads-dennys-thugs"><font color="#800080">stepped up to the plate</font></a> with its Super Bowl ad. While advertising their Grand Slam breakfast, Denny&rsquo;s announced an amazing act of kindness: giving away free Grand Slam breakfasts for everyone in America on Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. at all 1,500 locations. While self-servingly winning new customers, Denny&rsquo;s is also building tremendous &lsquo;helping others&rsquo; goodwill at a time when people need it most.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>
<p><span style="font-size: 10pt">Frosted Flakes raised the bar with its 30-second &ldquo;<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX0aTKuBNCI&amp;NR=1"><font color="#800080">Plant a seed</font></a>&rdquo; spot, urging people to visit <a href="http://www.frostedflakes.com/"><font color="#800080">FrostedFlakes.com</font></a> to nominate youth playing fields to be rebuilt pro bono by Kellogg&rsquo;s. Tony the Tiger even made his Super Bowl debut. After sorting through thousands of nominated playing fields, Kellogg&rsquo;s will narrow the list to 100. Then it will select 30 which will all be brought back to life by Kellogg&rsquo;s. </span></p>
</p>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0in; line-height: 14.4pt">
<div style="margin-left: 0in; line-height: 14.4pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">The NFL and United Way have long collaborated on many &ldquo;giving back&rdquo; campaigns, frequently communicating their good deeds via TV spots. This year&rsquo;s Super Bowl featured a <a href="http://www.mahalo.com/NFL_United_Way_Super_Bowl_Ad"><font color="#800080">simple ad</font></a> that tackled the subject of childhood obesity and promoted a mobile text link to donate.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0in; line-height: 14.4pt"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0in; line-height: 14.4pt"><em><span style="font-size: 10pt">It&rsquo;s about time.</span></em></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0in; line-height: 14.4pt">
<p><span style="font-size: 10pt">72% of Americans wish their employer would do more to support a cause and social issue. 87% are likely to switch from one brand to another brand if the other brand is associated with a good cause (Source: <a href="http://www.coneinc.com/files/2007ConeSurveyReport.pdf"><font color="#800080">2007 Cone Cause Evolution Study</font></a>). </span></p>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 0in; line-height: 14.4pt">
<p><span style="font-size: 10pt">Last night&rsquo;s advertising assault finally included companies with a conscience who understand that it&rsquo;s good business when brands make-the-world-a-better-place.</span>&nbsp;</p>
</div>
<p><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/HieieGE3UNI&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" width="425" height="344" scale="ShowAll" loop="loop" menu="menu" wmode="Window" quality="1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></p>
CleantechCommentaryCommunicationsMon, 02 Feb 2009 16:03:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2009/2/2/Corporate-social-responsibility-finally-finds-a-home-in-Super-Bowl-09-adsA broader PR palette now critical to move clean technology industry forwardhttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2009/1/27/A-broader-PR-palette-now-critical-to-move-clean-technology-industry-forward
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 9pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><img height="300" alt="Wind turbine - PR critical to move clean technology industry forward" hspace="4" width="200" align="left" vspace="4" src="http://www.beaupre.com/blog/userfiles/Image/wind-turbine.gif" />Clean technology investment was a major platform for Obama during his campaign. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 9pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">He said, </span><span style="font-size: 9.5pt">&quot;<em>My energy plan will put $150 billion over 10 years into establishing a green energy sector that will create up to 5 million new jobs over the next two decades.</em>&quot;He promised to create a Clean Technologies Venture Capital Fund, hoping to invest $10 billion per year into this fund for five years. Obama also promised to double science and research funding for clean-energy projects, including those making use of biomass, solar and wind resources. This was such an encouraging vision for our industry. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 9pt"><span style="font-size: 9.5pt">But the encouraging news is that this wasn&rsquo;t campaign rhetoric.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 9pt"><span style="font-size: 9.5pt">Yesterday, President Obama boldly acted on fuel efficiency and global warming. He urged passage of the $825 billion economic stimulus package in the House and Senate. Those bills include billions for investment in renewable energy, conservation and an improved electric grid. He said, &ldquo;<strong><em>No single issue is as fundamental to our future as energy</em></strong>.&rdquo;</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">There&rsquo;s never been a more critical time for authentic, persuasive, pragmatic, inspired communications. But does &ldquo;traditional PR&rdquo; play within this unfolding drama? Are messaging, thought leadership and media relations the core PR elements needed to affect the necessary change?</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><em><span style="font-size: 10pt">No, certainly not. </span></em></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">The clean technology industry is a complex ecosystem that includes economics, politics and public policy. Clean technology companies must continually balance these considerations. The industry also has a vibrant moral dimension &ndash; <em>a making the world a better place element</em> &ndash; that adds legitimacy, scope, involvement and urgency. </span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">In this dicey economic time, the clean technology industry needs even greater support from investors, public policy makers and the public itself to blossom. To achieve the progress President Obama envisions, we must think, plan and act holistically from a communications perspective as the clean tech industry develops and markets products and solutions that ultimately enable us to live cleaner, greener, better lives. </span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">Thankfully, public relations now represents a much wider palette. It should &ndash; and must - embrace a variety of strategic areas including thought leadership, public advocacy, social media, crisis communications, ethnography, employee communications, corporate social responsibility, multi-cultural relations, healthcare, change management and financial communications. </span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><em><span style="font-size: 10pt">To name a few.</span></em></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">Depending on the clean tech company, product/service, market segment and challenges faced, many of these communications ingredients must be thoughtfully weighed, integrated and acted upon, often in the same relative timeframe. Again and again and again.</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 9pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">Yes, these are complex, critical, consuming, highly charged challenges for communications professionals. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 9pt"><span style="font-size: 10pt">But what a historic moment to shape </span><span style="font-size: 9.5pt">a societal/global movement that will continue to grow in urgency as tough times morph &hellip; into stable times &hellip; and better times. </span></div>
WindNewsHydroLegislationCommunicationsHybridElectricityCleantechSolarTue, 27 Jan 2009 19:20:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2009/1/27/A-broader-PR-palette-now-critical-to-move-clean-technology-industry-forwardThought leadershiphttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2009/1/22/Thought-leadership
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><em>Everybody&rsquo;s talkin&rsquo; &lsquo;bout thought leadership ...&nbsp;</em><br />
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While the notion of being a thought leader is readily embraced by most clean tech companies (who doesn&rsquo;t want to be one?), you have to play it right or risk undermining your organization&rsquo;s credibility.&nbsp;<br />
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Eight things you need to know:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>1.&nbsp; The starting point? The word &ldquo;<strong>thought</strong>.&rdquo; Begin by creating a big picture idea with relevance to many. Look outward, not inward. The idea isn&rsquo;t myopically focused; it has appeal to others outside your company. And while it doesn&rsquo;t have to appe<img height="192" alt="Thought leadership - Beaupre &amp; Co." hspace="4" width="250" align="right" vspace="4" src="http://www.beaupre.com/blog/userfiles/image/thought-leadership.jpg" />al to a vast universe, it must appeal to a market or a segment of the clean technology market. Pervasive thought leadership platforms <em>cleverly rise above</em> (A) a company, (B) its products, (C) its technologies, and (D) its services. This is definitely the hard part.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>2.&nbsp; Companies create thought leadership ideas to&nbsp;forge a <strong>differentiated position</strong> for themselves. By&nbsp;developing big concepts, the thought leadership company creates competitive advantage. How? Because the marketplace perceives it as a mover and shaker: someone shaping the agenda vs. responding to it. Great thought leadership campaigns give their creators an offensive vs. defensive position. And get them noticed. Example: GE's &quot;<a href="http://ge.ecomagination.com/site/">Ecomagination</a>&quot; campaign. Despite a former checkered environmental record, GE effectively re-positioned itself: an initial $700 million in clean tech R&amp;D in 2005, expected to grow to $1.5 billion by 2010. GE wants $25 billion in Ecomagination product revenues that same year. A commitment of that size resonates across the industry.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>3.&nbsp; An effective thought leadership idea has <em><strong>forward appeal</strong></em>. It&rsquo;s not a rehash of where things have been, it&rsquo;s a brilliant definition of&nbsp;how things should be and where they should be headed. <em>It&rsquo;s a desired state with emphasis on benefits.</em> Example: Obama has consistently spoken about the need to take dramatic action to revive U.S. manufacturing and create jobs by investing in alternative energy sources. He&nbsp;emphasized it in his inaugural address, &quot;We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories.&quot;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>4.&nbsp; Effective thought leadership ideas are <strong>embraced (sometimes readily) by others</strong>. The ideas are so strong and compelling, that direct competitors either overtly or indirectly respond to &ndash; and shape themselves around - the idea. In some instances, competitors adopt the thought leadership idea but morph it&nbsp;with their own language.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>5.&nbsp; Great thought leadership lives a <strong>long life</strong> ...&nbsp;years not days. It isn't intended to be a short lived advertising tagline or a bumper sticker ... it's a concept that becomes a definitional stake-in-the-ground for high-level corporate messaging.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>6.&nbsp; The best thought leadership ideas are <strong>thought provoking</strong>, <strong>challenge </strong>the clean tech marketplace and are perceived as <strong>newsworthy </strong>by the media.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>7.&nbsp; Now for the second word, the &ldquo;leadership&rdquo; part. Great thought leaders don&rsquo;t sit back and say, &ldquo;Give me a call when you want to talk about this idea.&rdquo; They are bold, <strong>aggressive</strong> and in-your-face. They push the ball up the floor and take their message out with great consistency.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>8.&nbsp; There is &ndash; for the bold and socially minded - an even <strong>higher state of thought leadership</strong>. Companies can rise above their own market niches (and self interests) by making their world a better place to live.&nbsp;Clean technology is at a perfect crossroads for this kind of corporate social responsibility.&nbsp;</p>
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CleantechCommentaryCommunicationsThu, 22 Jan 2009 14:51:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2009/1/22/Thought-leadershipGoing green without getting a black eyehttp://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2007/8/8/Going-green-without-getting-a-black-eye
<p><img hspace="4" height="213" width="250" vspace="4" align="right" alt="" src="/blog/userfiles/Image/recycle_symbol_with_earth_photo.jpg" />The <em>International Herald Tribune</em> <a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/08/business/greentech.php">today </a>reported that technology companies are increasingly trying to go green by cutting data center energy. It turns out as little as 30 to 40 percent of the power flowing into a data center is used to run computers. The rest goes to year-round air conditioning which keeps hardware cool. Even a 1-megawatt data center can accumulate $17 million in electric bills over a 10-year life span.<br />
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I&rsquo;m pleased action is being taken; this is one of the important issues of our time with massive &ldquo;pay it forward&rdquo; impact. Unfortunately, most of the technology industry hasn&rsquo;t been on top of its game in the area of sustainability. Thankfully, some players &ndash; like IBM, AMD and HP &ndash; have demonstrated leadership. More companies need to ponder and build support around this issue.<br />
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The Herald Tribune article included some interesting comments relative to communications, public relations and going green. &ldquo;So with energy costs high and environmental friendliness making for good public relations, more technology companies are touting ways they are &ldquo;greening&rdquo; data centers.&rdquo; Reporter Brian Bergstein went on to say, &ldquo;But it is a lot easier to put out a press release than to build a data center with a significantly smaller environmental footprint.&rdquo;<br />
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There&rsquo;s the rub. As professional communicators, we must lead and inspire management to approach corporate &ldquo;green alignment&rdquo; with thoughtfulness and credibility. The key is to build consensus around a legitimate green position, back it up with substance and not overplay it.<br />
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As tech companies start wearin&rsquo; the environmental green, they have to take care not to strut more stuff than they actually have. Dell&rsquo;s &ldquo;<a href="http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/about_dell/values/environment/tree?c=us&amp;l=en&amp;s=corp&amp;redirect=1">Plant a tree</a>&rdquo; initiative, for example, had a public backlash. Publications such as Computing said the initiative looked more like a marketing ploy than a serious carbon-neutral program. Dell didn&rsquo;t say whether it was donating any funding to the program to cover the emissions generated by manufacturing its computers. This would have been the more substantive move.<br />
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The lesson to remember is that &ldquo;green alignment&rdquo; must be a legitimate outgrowth of a company&rsquo;s core business. Better to do a little bit in this area &ndash; and make it real &ndash; than over-promise, grandstand and have it linked to vaporware.<br />
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Let&rsquo;s make sure technology companies go green without getting a black eye.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
CleantechCommentaryGreenCommunicationsWed, 08 Aug 2007 09:34:00-0400http://www.beaupre.com/cleanspeak/index.cfm/2007/8/8/Going-green-without-getting-a-black-eye